


Words of Another Time: #1 The Restart

by Penguin45



Series: Words of Another Time [1]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26934640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguin45/pseuds/Penguin45
Summary: My name is Jake. For over a year now my friends and I have been fighting a secret war against an alien race trying to conquer Earth. To be honest we weren't accomplishing much, barely slowing the Yeerks down until the cavalry arrived. But then the bad guys stumbled across a time machine, and after a trip through history Marco asked, "why do we have to go back to where we left off?"
Series: Words of Another Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965349
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Words of Another Time: #1 The Restart

**Chapter 1**

* * *

If you’re reading this, then you probably don’t find the existence of aliens shocking at this point. Either we won, and everything is out in the open since the Andalites arrived, or we lost and Earth is part of the Yeerk Empire. Maybe you’re a part of a resistance, or maybe you’re a Controller yourself, and the Yeerks are keeping this record for their own reasons. Personally, I hope you’re free and you’re reading this because you want to know more about what happened. Maybe we’re _New York Times_ bestsellers. Maybe Marco’s story has been made into a blockbuster – weirder things have happened.

Either way, this time around we’re keeping these journals and the plan is to copy them and hide caches of our efforts all over the planet. That way even if the worst happens, if this copy is destroyed, there will be another, and another, and another, until one day Earth is free once more. To be honest, the original idea was just to have a way to write things down to deal with everything that’s happened, some of it twice. After what happened, Cassie thought it would help. I guess it does – I feel a lot better just putting these things down. Knowing that no matter what happens to us, a part will live on.

My name is Jake. Me and my friends had been in a secret guerilla war with the Yeerks for a year and a half before everything changed. It doesn’t really matter what we did, as you won’t remember it. But basically an Andalite Prince, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamsul crash landed right where five kids were taking a stupid shortcut home from the mall. He told us about the Yeerks, and gave us the ability to transform into any animal we touched – a complicated process of copying its DNA and creating a connection to a dimension of infinite space… I don’t pretend to understand it no matter how many times Ax explains it (and to be honest, I doubt he understands it anymore than your average high school student really understands how space ships or atom bombs work – the morphing technology is pretty much the most advanced thing his people have ever invented, which is saying something). Long story short, five scared teenagers were going to use lions and tigers and bears to fight a guerilla war against a space traveling race of parasite body-snatchers.

To drive the lesson home, the first thing we saw was the Yeerk leader of the Earth invasion, Visser Three as he was at the time, kill Elfangor. Visser Three was the only Yeerk to control an Andalite, and so our first experience of this morphing technology was watching an Andalite turn into some nightmarish monster and _eat_ Elfangor. Marco threw up.

It feels weird writing like this, as odds are if you know who I am you know who my friends are. But briefly – there’s me, Jake. My cousin Rachel was with us, and in fact the reason we were in that construction yard in the first place was because I had mouthed off about needing to ‘protect’ my cousin, which of course I said precisely because I knew it would piss her off. She was with Cassie, a friend of both of ours going way back and who I had a bit of a crush on at the time. I don’t remember what they were doing at the mall before we ran into them; I had been hanging out in the arcade with Marco, my best friend. And at some point as we were leaving we ran into Tobias. Of all of us at the time, Tobias was definitely the odd one out. He wasn’t really a friend just a kid at school who I had helped out against some bullies a few times. It’s funny to think that of all of us, me helping out Tobias was the most random thing that led to the formation of our little group that night.

Ax, short for Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, was Elfangor’s brother and had been stranded under the Pacific ocean when the dome on the Andalite Dome Ship (sort of like if aircraft carriers had detachable living quarters) was damaged during the battle over earth and half fell half, auto-piloted down to the planet. Ax was the only survivor, and the first time around it was a few weeks before we were even aware of him.

Anyway, the point is that we fought the Yeerks for over a year, winning some battles but not doing much but slowing the Yeerk invasion down a little bit. The first few months, the morphing power was more dangerous to us that it was to the Yeerks. Marco almost got bitten in half by a shark while morphed as a dolphin. We almost got ripped apart by a hostile ant colony. We almost lost ourselves as termites. We almost got locked in a giant Yeerk equivalent to a water cooler trapped as trout. We almost got stuck as wolves and Tobias did get stuck as a hawk. That’s the big catch to morphing – stay in a form for more than two hours, and the connect to Z-space or whatever is lost and you’re trapped in the morph forever.

So there we were, half the time almost dying in the most gruesome ways imaginable, and the other half scoring a few hits against the Yeerks but other than a few good hits nothing really slowing them down much. And then we met Visser Four. Sort of.

Visser Four found the Time Matrix, a time machine so powerful that even interdimensional beings that could crush Earth out of existence in a second stood up and took notice of it. We were offered the chance to follow Visser Four, and prevent him from changing the past so as to make humanity easier to conquer. The cost was my life. I actually died crossing the Delaware with George Washington, though it happened so fast I don’t remember it. Tobias told me about it later, the others don’t really like to talk about it, especially not Marco, who was right beside me when it happened.

Fortunately, with time travel there were all sorts of loopholes involved, and Cassie figured it out the big one. But it was Marco who modified her plan. Cassie just wanted to go back and make Visser Four’s host never exist, never be born. It was Marco though who pointed out that getting rid of Visser Four’s host didn’t stop Visser Four from existing, and just doing everything he did before in a different body. And it was Marco who suggested that perhaps the reason we had been put on this mission wasn’t just to stop Visser Four… but to use the Time Matrix for ourselves.

Maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe not. I don’t know. Because of the whole me dying in the past, I wasn’t there when the decision was made. Except that I remember it because once the decision was made, I never actually died. It gives me headaches just thinking about it.

I like to think Marco made the choice because he knew that we needed the restart. There were just to few _Animorphs_ , and therefore too few _Animorph_ manhours and _Animorph_ coverage to meaningfully stop the invasion. Even if every Yeerk on Earth only managed one hour a day of Yeerk Invasion on top of pretending to be a normal human being, we were outnumbered thousands to one. And that didn’t include the Hork Bajir and Taxxons and various odds and ends we occasionally came across, or the entire Yeerk battleforce in outer space.

But Marco is the most ruthless of the _Animorphs_ – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’ve been in war too long to see ruthlessness as a purely bad thing. Marco is the best at doing what has to be done. But I think in that moment he slipped. Not to boast, but his best friend had just been killed. And Marco’s mother, the host of Visser One, had presumably drowned on an alien world. I think he just saw a chance to change that, and he took it.

Anyway that brings us to the beginning of the story that you might have some idea of.

Five teenagers hiding in a construction yard while Visser Three ate Elfangor, only with a year’s worth of memories that now technically never existed. Nobody screamed. Nobody threw up. I think we were all just trying to remember how exactly events panned out last time, how exactly had we escaped without being killed or turned into Controllers ourselves. In retrospect, it would have been better to have gone back in time to the day after, but the Time Matrix doesn’t exactly have a manual, and that was the moment we were all thinking about when it activated and shot us back across the threads of time. And anyway, the Time Matrix was gone.

I don’t remember how we got away the first time. Vaguely I think we just ran. I remember a homeless man, it’s literally the first time I’ve thought about him and wondered what happened to him. I don’t mean to sound heartless, but that night… there was a lot going on, that’s all I’m saying.

But what I’m 100% certain didn’t happen was Visser Three morph back to his Andalite form and declare. ((Search the ship and quickly. There is much to be done – the fool Elfangor won’t have been the only Andalite bandit to have landed on the planet.))

I don’t know where the Time Matrix went. But it looks like intergalactic forces weren’t through playing with us yet. Because Visser Three had come back with us, even though right then we couldn’t know that for absolutely certainty.

It’s weird, trying to write this with two sets of memories of the same time. You’ll have to give me some leeway if I don’t get them quite right, switch things over maybe or can’t quite remember everything. Some things I’m leaving out in case despite everything these journals get found before they really should. And part of it is that fighting a guerilla war involves a lot of waiting. Being terrified that something is going to happen sure, but it’s not all guns blazing. Most of what we do is planning and research – we can’t afford to mess up. But it does make it hard to remember exactly what happened one day and what happened the next without those big gutwrenching landmark battles.

The next morning though we all went to Cassie’s house. Her parents live out on the edge of town, right along the edge of a national forest, and they’ve got a barn that’s always full of sick and injured animals that her dad (and by extension Cassie) take care of an extension of his work with the veterinary school. I honestly can’t remember if we did that straight away last time. I remember Tobias coming over and morphing a cat and I morphed my dog Homer, but this time I called Marco’s house and he answered to let me know he was already on the way. We didn’t say anything specific – we never do on the phone, but Marco came over and by the time we arrived at Cassie’s everyone else was already there; even Tobias, who lives the furthers out of all of us with his uncle.

“We’re really doing this, then.” That was Marco. We all just nodded – not like we had a choice anymore. In a way it was even weirder than the first time we found out what was going on. Rachel’s eyes though were shining. “We can really do it this time,” she half-whispered, but her tone no less fierce for it. “We know so much more right now. We can smash the Kandrona this afternoon! We can-”

“No!” Marco interrupted her. “Visser Four thought he had a golden ticket to just rewrite anything he wanted and look how it ended for him. We have to be _smart_.”

“It’s not just that,” I added, interjecting myself between the two of them before they could start going at each other. Marco and Rachel are as polar opposite as any of us got; that’s not to say they weren’t friends or didn’t have each other’s backs, but they tended to have the most different ways of looking at things. Except Cassie I guess, but Cassie has always been the… poetic one of us, in a way. She sorta sees everything through her own lens, something that’s been dangerous to us at times but also a huge asset as well.

Marco nodded. “Visser Three… he knows something. Do we think, you know, that maybe.?” He trailed off.

Rachel deflated slightly, but nodded. She’s impulsive, but she’s also very smart and quick on the uptake. “Do we think that Crayak offered him the same deal that the Ellimist offered us? Maybe.”

My blood ran cold, and Cassie voiced my fear. “Does he know who we are?”

Nobody said a word for a minute. I know what we were all thinking – were we about to bring the Yeerks down upon us, and all our families.

“No,” I said after a moment, shaking my head. “No.” More forcefully after seeing Marco’s look of doubt. “If the Visser knew who we were, he would have contacted Tom last night. We’d already be dead or controlled.” Tom’s my brother. He’s also a Controller. A Controller to a very up-and-coming Yeerk, as a matter of fact.

It’s a testament how much our lives have changed that thinking we could have all been killed in our beds the night before actually had a calming effect. “And it’s not really their style, is it?” Marco added after a moment. “They like to screw with us, but they don’t like to really fill us in.” He paused. “We still don’t know if we were supposed to do what we did.”

“Screw them,” Rachel hissed. Of all of us, she disliked the Ellimist and Crayak the most. Maybe because of how she is and their attempts to control us just hit her the wrong way magnified to eleven. Or maybe because when we first met the Ellimist, it was Rachel who he manipulated the most, even if it worked out well for us. “We did it, and we’re going to make it count.”

“I guess a trip to The Gardens is in order,” Cassie broke in, shifting the topic. “We’ve got some old friends to meet up with,” she said with a slight smile. We all grinned at that, despite everything. Morphing an eagle or a tiger or a wolf is _cool_. Right away, let me just say: I know some people are going to look back and ask why we didn’t _all_ acquire tigers and bears and alligators and gorillas. Well, barring the alligator which Rachel can’t morph anyway because of an allergy to – I know it’s weird – alligator DNA – the truth is that morphing is a lot more personal than that. I know that sounds silly. But in a way, the morphs _become_ part of us. And even then, it just felt wrong that anyone but Marco should acquire Big Jim, The Garden’s resident male Silverback Gorilla, or that anyone should go through the terror of acquiring a Siberian Tiger but me. Eventually we stopped being so sentimental… mostly, but even then it was still very much a part of us. I could see the others were reminiscing too on their favorite morphs, their favorite extensions of themselves.

And speaking of – one person had been very quiet over this period. Tobias. I turned to him, asking him what was up, only to find him staring at a wounded Red-Tail Hawk encaged along with the assortment of birds and small animals along the far side of the barn from the horse stalls.

“Tobias, you there?” I asked, giving him a slight nudge. “Huh? Yeh…”

“Well, I guess we have our first morph this time round,” Rachel joked, but there was an edge to it. “Just… be careful, Tobias.” He snapped out to look at Rachel and give her a nod.

“I will.” He replied. Nobody said anything – the first time around, Tobias had been trapped as that exact hawk, the one I mentioned earlier. But personally, though I never asked him directly I think it might have been on purpose. His homelife is to be blunt, crap. I think it was an impulsive choice to just leave that all behind. It’s not my place to say what happened after that, but all you need to know is that Tobias did get his morphing powers back courtesy of the Ellimist who was now such a big part of our lives, but with a catch. Tobias could morph _out_ of hawk for two hours, or else be trapped. He was a hawk with human mind with the ability to become something else. Now though, he was himself again… for a weird definition of himself. One I wasn’t sure he wanted to be again. All of us were wondering even if we didn’t say anything if Tobias would end up trapped as a hawk in a week. I don’t know what that would do to us, and I hoped not to find out.

Tobias acquired his hawk. The Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and Osprey that the rest of us would choose as raptor morphs weren’t in the barn yet, and it felt wrong to acquire what really was the other half of Tobias. Plus, birds of prey aren’t exactly pack animals, so it wasn’t the best choice anyway. Instead, we all (including Tobias) picked up a new morph, the Common Raven. Cassie had one on hand which was obviously a necessity, and ravens are common everywhere in the country and fly together, for another. Tobias grumbled about acquiring a ‘rat with wings’, which is his go to insult for every bird this side of hawk, but he acquired it anyway.

“I guess though if we’re going to The Gardens, having a hawk looking out for us wouldn’t be the worst idea,” I mentioned sorta offhand and that seemed to brighten his step.

Before we morphed though, the police officer showed up. Oh he’d shown up the first time to, but after everything that had happened over the past year it just wasn’t that big of a memory for any of us. Seeing Cassie’s dad lead the police officer was honestly the most terrified I’ve been in a long while, and it took a second to click that this was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact the last time had been worse, because Cassie had been in the process of demorphing from her horse when he showed up.

“Hey sweetie… hi Jake, Rachel, everyone – this is Officer Jones – he has a couple of questions for you.” And sure enough just like last time he asked about if we’d been near the construction site behind the mall last night. I think last time he said something about some kids being seen setting off fireworks or something. I don’t really remember and nothing really came of it but we pegged him for a Controller because of it and later had seen him at The Sharing, a Yeerk front organization to recruit new hosts. I kept my face from showing any anger – that’s where they’d captured Tom.

This time he was much more serious. Apparently they’d already run security footage from the mall and were contacting anyone who might have seen anything. He didn’t come right out and enact the magic word _terrorism_ but he did everything short of that, insinuating something really bad had happened and if we knew anything we really needed to cooperate. We probably said something along the same lines as last time, how we didn’t notice anything before we left the mall but we’d be sure to call if we did. He didn’t look pleased though.

“You sure you didn’t see anything,” he asked for the third time. Cassie’s dad was starting to look agitated, like he was torn between asking the cop to leave us alone or start grilling us himself. Cassie stepped forward, looking flustered. “ Well um, I mean gah this really isn’t how I wanted you to find out,” she looked up at her dad and her cheeks… well, Cassie is black so she didn’t blush exactly, but her cheeks do this cute thing, I can’t really describe it but they did it. She turned to me and slipped her hand into mine. I clasped it. “Jake and I started dating last night, officially.” She gave me a quick peck on the cheek and now I was the one going red.

Cassie and I had kissed before, and I guess we weren’t really dating being in the middle of a war but we’d had _something_ , so it wasn’t like this was entirely new to me too. I kept my face straight and looked at Cassie’s dad for a moment giving an awkward nod then turning to the cop. “Sorry, it’s just… yeah.”

It worked. The Yeerk had no interest in teenage romance and after a reminder to say anything if any of us remembered anything, he took off. Cassie’s dad gave me a look and said it would be nice to have me over for dinner sometime soon, which I agreed to right away. Marco held back a snort.

But then he left too and it was clear to us that we needed to get a move on. Clearly, something on the Yeerk side had changed to, beyond our suspicions. Visser Three wasn’t the kind of guy I figured to keep everyone else on the up-and-up about his new position as a time traveler, but clearly he was kicking things up a notch. We left the barn, heading out past the horse ring and the meadow beyond it to where the woods starts properly.

“You think this time round we can figure out how to morph shoes?” Marco grumbled as we took off our outer clothes. I doubted it. Funnily enough, we had all worn fairly skintight underclothes, even if not our usual ‘morphing clothes’. Cassie I guess didn’t own a leotard yet, and Tobias only had a regular Tee, although clearly the smallest size he still owned by the looks of it. I guess we all knew we would be morphing today, or maybe it’s just force of habit by now.

“Save it,” Rachel grumbled. “You have no idea how much I spent on new clothes last year, what with all the leaving things behind and getting stuff ruined and slashed and bloodstained. At least you boys can just pick up a pack of briefs and tees and call it a day.”

I didn’t say anything – there wasn’t any real heat in their argument, just something to say to avoid the awkward tension.

“I’ll go first then,” Tobias said. We all nodded. If anything deserved a right of passage into this new world of ours, it was Tobias and his hawk. He shrank. His legs shriveled and shrank and his toes splayed out even as his arms got longer and then flattened like put in a pancake press. His face elongated and fused together, turning glossy but still obviously human skin. His eyes shrank and then his whole body exploded in feathers that were still Tobias’ own darker blond. And then at last, he became a more bird than hawk, and in less than two minutes Tobias was… well, he was Tobias again. I didn’t say that though.

((It’s good to be back.)) He said to us, so clearly I wasn’t the only one thinking it. ((Huh.))

“Huh, what?” Rachel asked, protectively. “Tobias, what’s up?”

((Nothing bad, just different. I have the hawk’s instincts down pat but this is a bit like acquiring a new morph. Weird.))

“Guess we have to relearn the muscle memory,” Marco commented after a second. “Or morphing memory or whatever.”

((No, it’s not… it’s not like that, just like being a bit rusty.))

“It’ll be fine,” I said, clapping my hands once in show. “And a raven can’t be any different than what we’ve done before.”

The others nodded. We morphed. It was the usual grotesque horror show, except for Cassie who managed to sprout an entirely human sized set of wings out her back before transforming into a bird. Cassie by far is the best morpher of all of us, and it looks like even with whatever we had to relearn she could still make it look artistic. And a few minutes later our little flock of ravens soared off, Tobias a ways further out both to calm the raven’s mind – which was as cool and calmly intelligent as anything I’ve ever morphed this side of dolphin – and to keep any observers from wondering why a flock of ravens were so calm with a hawk up ahead.

Fortunately, while we don’t understand exactly how thought-speak works we do understand that without any barriers in the way, our thought-speak can communicate over some fairly hefty distances, so it’s not like Tobias was totally out the loop as we made our way back into town.

Mostly, we talked about what we needed to do, and what we needed to never ever touch again with a twenty foot pole. Rachel wanted to hit hard and fast at the Yeerk Kandrona. If for some reason you’ve gotten this far and don’t know what the Kandrona is, it’s basically a replicant of the Yeerk sun from their home world; like a giant UV light only it emits a special kind of radiation that Yeerks need in order to survive. They also have what are called Yeerk Pools, which are a sort of nutrient rich soup that the Yeerk needs to bathe in while being exposed to Kandrona radiation. If they don’t get it every three days, they die. So in side one of the largest buildings in the city was currently a giant radiation emitting machine, and under about twenty blocks of the city there was a giant artificial cavern that included not only the Yeerk Pool but, from previous trips to that hell, a shipyard and even a canteen filled with McDonald’s and Wendy’s and stuff.

Anyway, Rachel wanted to go after the Kandrona. Cassie pointed out that we needed to rescue Ax, but Marco countered there was a good chance Ax would get himself out and come find us; he had been with us when we went back in time after all. Tobias added that we couldn’t necessarily count on that, so it was agreed that in addition to our battle morphs we needed to go ahead and pick up dolphins and maybe a few other aquatic morphs besides. Nobody mentioned going back down to the Yeerk Pool – nothing good had ever come of us doing that. The first time around, that was the very first thing we did. We did it in part because it was the first thing we found out about the Yeerks, and also as a rescue mission for my brother, Tom. I actually ended up with Tom’s Yeerk in my head for three days, and I knew my brother was fighting and screaming every step of the way even as he was forced to do the Yeerk’s bidding.

But as much as it pained my inside, I knew that we weren’t up to pulling off a heist in the Yeerk Pool. And I knew that even if we could, the Yeerks would never leave Tom alive after that. If anything, they’d come straight after my mom and dad. And me. There might be ways around that, but it would put Tom in hiding. Which understand, I would prefer that over having my brother be a slave to the Yeerks, but it just wasn’t an option right now.

((Don’t forget the hospital,)) I said, coming back to the conversation. That was where the Yeerks had taken me over, by accident. ((We need to make sure they can’t use that as a base of operations again.))

((What about The Sharing?)) Cassie asked, slightly hurriedly – I guess she remembered what happened at the hospital to. ((We’ve never really done anything there except infiltrate a few events, should we try to shut it down too?))

We paused at that, each mulling it over. ((Something to think about.)) Marco said at last. ((How much advantage does it give us knowing we can infiltrate it, compared to the cost of the Yeerks having a recruiting front in place.))

It went like that for awhile. I haven’t mentioned everything we talked about but you get the idea. And then at long last we were soaring over the amusement park that makes up about a third of The Gardens. It was time to enter the world’s strangest arsenal this planet had every known.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

I don’t remember what our plan was the first time we went to The Gardens. I remember Cassie letting us in, and then something going on and everyone getting separated and me and Marco ending up in the tiger exhibit, leading to me acquiring one of the most deadly animals on earth by accident while trying to keep out of view of the visitors – which by the way we completely failed to do.

We were smarter this time round. We flew over The Gardens and spent a few hours just flying around the park, discussing morphs and figuring out what we needed, demorphing when needed on the roof of reptile house behind the air conditioning fans. Last time around, we tended to just pick up morphs exactly when we needed them, and I guess having a reset gave us time to think things through. Afterall, once we knew we were going to need our regular set of morphs, it just seemed natural to think about what else we could pick up while we were here.

In addition to not picking up each other’s favorite morphs at the time, which I admit was sorta dumb but had its own issues, I’m sure some people out there reading this will just figure that we should have picked up the morph of every single animal we could imagine. It’s more complicated than that. Even among Andalites morphing was a new and as I mentioned very sophisticated technology, and nobody knew (or at least Ax didn’t have a clue) what the long term effects of morphing actually were, if any. Let alone if there were any for humans. Or if there was a maximum amount of acquired morphs just like there was a maximum time for _being_ in morph. So even when we became a little more open and forward thinking about what to morph, there was always a niggling idea that morphs weren’t something to waste.

So, we didn’t. We went around The Gardens, taking note by air of the layout and everything we needed. The Gardens is laid out mostly by continent – so there’s an Asia exhibit and a North America and Amazon, and then Africa which is about half the zoo by itself. There’s a bit of a crossover in the snake house and some other exhibits, but you get the idea.

((I’m calling dibs on Grizzly again,)) Rachel remarked. ((Oh look, Cheetahs – that would be cool too!)) Of course my cousin was thinking about that, although I can’t really blame her. I was really looking forward to seeing my tiger again. I’ve morphed a lot of things – or I had, I guess – but there’s definitely a few morphs that are cooler than others, and tiger tops the list.

((We should pick up some escape morphs this time around,)) Marco added. ((Something that can’t be thwarted by RAID. It’s not easy trying to sneak around as King Kong.))

((Hmm… Raccoon maybe? Although we have those at the barn.)) Cassie.

((Nasty things,)) Tobias added. ((Not much a bird can’t escape from, anyway.))

We all knew Tobias’s prejudice when it came to landlubbers. Especially things that have a tendency to eat hawks when they have the chance too. Cassie continued without missing a beat.

((The monkey house maybe? Spider Monkeys are probably the best bet, and we have them here.))

((Ha! So Marco comes to the fight as a monkey and leaves as one to! Coincidence?)

((Ha ha. beat it, Xena.))

((Tobias, any thought of a battle morph? As much as we love the hawk, having you when we’re out of the open would be great.)) I cut through the usual bickering banter to address something that had been on my mind as soon as I caught sight of the tigers. Tobias even after he regained his morphing powers never really morphed unless he had to, and we definitely could use some extra firepower this time around.

((I don’t know, I’m thinking about it,)) Tobias said faintly from above us.

((Elephants are really cool, you know. You can go shotgun with me,)) Rachel replied back immediately.

((That’s… Elephants are pretty cool. Maybe.)) Tobias hedged, but he sounded pleased at the idea at least. I didn’t push further.

I thought about that – as much as I like my tiger morph there’s times when the situation calls for BIG, in a way even a tiger doesn’t quite match up. ((I’m going to pick up Rhino again,)) I said after a moment.

((Oh, that’ll be easy,)) Cassie interrupted. ((The Rhinos are right next to the Tiger exhibit.))

Marco laughed. ((I forgot about that! Jake, you remember we actually came face to face-))

((-yeh, and then we jumped from the Rhinos right into the Tigers.))

((We really are crazy, man.))

Maybe we should have been taking things more seriously, but we were on top of the world with our sudden new chance to make everything right and flying is always fun, especially on a warm spring weekend day. Raven was new to us – not the crazy fun of being the seagull or the sheer thrill of diving as a peregrine, but cool in its own way.

We circled around again, catching a thermal over the parking lot and then riding over the dolphins’ pool. ((We should go ahead and pick those up too,)) Marco pointed out with a tip of his wings. ((In case we need to rescue the Ax-man.))

That sobered us up a little bit, but all in all we had a good time. Rachel was having a blast combining her two favorite things, thinking about firepower and window shopping. The plan was for Marco and I to go back to my place and – if memory served – take Tom up on his offer to go to a beach party tonight with The Sharing. Last time we went it was then that we confirmed that my brother was actually a Controller, but this time we already knew that so we’d just hang for a bit as an excuse and then wonder off and fly back to The Gardens after close and acquire everything we need. Truthfully, Tom had been going on and on about the Sharing for a few months at that point and they do something every weekend, so it wasn’t really a stretch to set up a situation to invite ourselves along.

“We’ll see you guys later then,” I said as we parted directions with Rachel and Cassie. “Tobias, you wanna come?” He shrugged. “Sure.” We went back to my place and shot hoops, waiting for Tom to get home. My dad’s a pediatrician and my mom’s a writer, so they both usually are out of the house Saturday afternoon having some together time. Sure enough, Tom got home a little after three and Marco shot me a look.

“Hey midget. Marco… sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before,” Tom added, turning to Tobias. Even now it’s amazing how in control Yeerks can be. I’ve been on the other side, been helpless before… to the same Yeerk that was currently in my brother’s head. But I kept my cool.

"Tobias. Hi.” Tom nodded back to Tobias’s introduction. “Tom.”

“You wanna join us, maybe give some tips?” I asked my brother. He was the big star on the high school team, and I’d almost forgotten that first time around, my biggest worry around this time was to have been not making the junior high team. Tom had quit the team without telling anyone, so his Yeerk could spend more time devoted to The Sharing. Was I supposed to know that yet? I couldn’t remember.

“Sorry midget, got things to do before heading out tonight. The Sharing is hosting a party on the beach. Lots of games… girls,” Tom’s Yeerk snapped his fingers as if he’d just had an idea. “Hey! You guys should come. It’s gonna be great.”

We shared a look. “Yeah, that sounds good. What time?” Marco asked. I was grateful. I could have played along – I’ve been used to playing the double game around my brother for a long time now, but I had a personal animosity to that Yeerk in Tom’s head. It, at least, was supposed to be dead.

Tom beamed, swiping the basketball from me and making a perfect shot. “Officially starts at six but people come and go whenever. It’s just fun, ya know – see how you guys like it then maybe think about joining. It changed my life.”

Oh, I know it did, Yeerk. Most of the time I don’t take any particular joy in killing Yeerks, it’s just something that has to happen. But Temrash 114 – currently Temrash 252 you are going to _die_.

“Cool man, we’ll see you there.” Marco again, passing me the ball with a little more force than necessary, just to get my attention. “Yeah, for sure.” I added, passing the ball back to my brother. He took one more shot – _swoosh_ – and then went inside. We all shared a look. Phase One, complete.

“I guess I better go get Homer again,” I broke the silence. “You know, like last time.”

Marco shook his head. “That was dumb last time, but we didn’t know any better. C’mon, let’s head to the mall. I see lots of bike shorts in our future, and we’ll make sure to pet a dog that _nobody knows._ ” I paused, then nodded. Last time, I had snuck into The Sharing as my dog Homer, and even then I had realized the danger of Tom possible recognizing me, but it hadn’t struck me at the time what a risk I had been taking.

We went to the mall, passed some bullshit off about biking with the clerk at the sports apparel store before walking out with new morphing clothes, and then headed over to the pet shop on the second floor not far from the arcade where our adventures had started. There wasn’t exactly a large selection of larger dogs, but there was a golden retriever that I acquired – it might not be Homer but I did feel some need to stay loyal to my dog if I could, so I did. Marco gave me a smirk before acquiring an Irish Setter, and I did wonder if it was the same dog that Marco had acquired last time when we had used dog morphs to sneak into an outdoor concert in town… another loose end we needed to think about, but that was for later.

Tobias picked a black lab, and that was that. I called Rachel from a pay phone in the mall, telling her we were thinking of heading over to the Beach and if she wanted to come. We’ve gotten good at not saying anything too telling on phones in case anyone is listening in.

“Sounds good, cuz.” Rachel’s voice rang through. “Cassie’s here but she’s about to head home anyway, she says she might come out again but she has to change first.” I nodded, even though she obviously couldn’t see me. _Has to change_ was one of our codes that somebody was going to be there, but in morph. “Ok see you by the pier in an hour,” I said without any further comment and hung up.

“All good?” Marco asked, only because he beat Tobias to it. I shrugged. “I guess – Rachel didn’t seem anxious or anything. We done here?”

They both looked around. “I guess,” Tobias replied noncommittedly.

“Yeah.”

It’s not a far walk to the beach from the mall and we had an hour so we took the scenic route… far _far_ away from the construction site.

“We need to go back there soon,” Marco said eventually – clearly we were on the same thought.

“What?” I asked anyway.

“The construction site – there’s something there we need to find.”

I thought pack, confusion must have been clear on my face. I expected Marco to take a moment to relish in my ignorance, but it was Tobias who answered for us.

“Oh shit. The morphing cube.”

 _Oh Shit_ was right. Last time around we had assumed it was destroyed, but some time later a new kid at our school had stumbled across it. The result had been our first and last attempt at adding new _Animorphs_ , and David stuck as a rat on a rock in the ocean. I grimaced. Hopefully this time round his path would have no reason to cross ours and he’d be okay. Which reminded me of my cousin… I shook my head, making a note but trying to focus. Day one and already the number of things we needed to think about kept growing.

“Yeah. Maybe we should do some flyovers in the next couple of days,” I said, turning to Tobias. “What do you think of the hawk though – if Visser Three really is back here with us, he’s going to be on alert for hawks even remotely related to the _Andalite Bandits_.

Tobias sneered. He’d come a long way from the scared, stammering kid who got picked on by middle school bullies. “I’ll give him reason to fear the hawk again,” then he let out a breath. “But yeah, maybe best to save the hawk for guns blazing, not recon… well, not recon near a hotzone.” He kicked a pebble. “I hate morphing flying rats.”

I let that pass, he really had been stubborn about morphing gull – I guess the hawk really was a core part of him now. When Tobias morphed, maybe it was Tobias the human, the morph itself, _and_ Tobias the hawk in there. Come to think of it, that might explain why he had been so surprisingly reluctant to morph even after he got his power back. I didn’t say anything, but I made a note to ask Cassie what she thought about it later.

Rachel was waiting for us when we got to the beach. She waved us over, taking a sip of some flavored carbonated water drink as she tried to look casual just hanging out on the pier.

“Hey Rach,” I said as we closed the distance. “So, is Cassie coming?”

She grinned. “Miss your girlfriend already, Jake? Sorry – I think she had some stuff come up.” But as she said that, her eyes rose upward, toward a small flock of gulls circling overhead.

((Hi guys. Jake.)) I swear I heard a slight blush in my name but I’m probably overthinking it… or maybe not given Marco’s smirk. ((Better to keep an eye in the sky, right? Especially after last time…))

I frowned at that, puzzled. So did Marco and Tobias. Rachel rolled her eyes. “Helloooo, remember? Our first trip down to… you know.” Her voice left no doubt which place we did in fact all know. Hell. The Yeerk Pool. My eyes went wide. “Ding ding ding give our winner a prize,” Rachel mocked, although she gave me a pat on the shoulder to take the heat out of it.

Last time round, the cop from earlier had noticed Cassie around The Sharing’s private meeting, and had taken her down to the Yeerk Pool – we’d only managed to rescue her at the last minute, and that’s definitely not something we wanted to risk again.

“Always good to have eyes in the sky,” was Tobias’ entire commentary on the issue as he looked longingly skyward.

“Right.” I added. “She’s got a safe place to recharge if she needs it?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Yeah, there’s an outcropping well out under the pier that’s not visible from the beach, or at least not visible enough for anyone to make out anything. It’ll be fine.”

I looked up at the seagulls.

((I’m fine, guys, really.)) one of the seagulls that was Cassie replied. ((Better than fine, the seagull is going nuts with the amount of food The Sharing is putting out. I’ve got a girl with a giant thing of french-fries at ten o’clock… or is that two?))

I laughed – our seagull morph was notorious for what it could pick out when it came to anything edible.

We made our way to the general throng of Sharing members and guests and people who just saw a good time and decided to join. It was impossible to tell just by looking who was an innocent person just enjoying a day on the beach, and who was an innocent person… enslaved to a Yeerk. Fortunately for us, we’d done this before. And we had a pretty good idea that a ‘full member’ was certainly a Yeerk. The plan for today was to go around, not _too_ interested but check out who at this time was already a Controller, and start rebuilding our web of known Controllers to follow. Without Tobias being a hawk twenty-four-seven there was some question of who was going to be doing the tracking while we were at school, but we’d figure that out later.

“Hey! You made it midget – oh hey Rachel.” Tom came over, his hands full with a giant plate of ribs. He couldn’t look any less alien invader if he tried. “We’re just setting up but you guys go have fun – I think volleyball is about to start.”

I remembered this from last time. We played some games, walked on the beach, enjoyed the ribs. Last time round by the time it was sunset Marco was convinced that he had been wrong and Tom wasn’t a Controller. The Sharing really does a perfect job of coming across as this totally innocent, community focused coed boy scout thing. Which of course is the point.

Like last time, Tom gave us his pitch again about how great it would be if we all joined for real, and then said he had to go off to the meeting for all the ‘full members’. We walked off away from the rest of the crowd, to a more secluded section of the beach in the shadows of the dunes. Rachel kept lookout and Marco, Tobias, and I all morphed our dogs.

Honestly, turning into a dog is really cool. I mean yeah there’s the gross part where my spine shifted and my legs bent the wrong way and my entire body erupted in fur, but then the senses kick in. The _smells_. The _sounds_. And the dog brain that just treats the whole world as one giant game to play.

((You _all_ picked up dogs?)) Cassie asked from above.

((Yeh, what’s the problem?)) Marco asked.

((I don’t know I just assumed Jake would morph Homer again.)) Cassie admitted. ((Tobias, you were watching Jake from above last time, right? Was the meeting this… guarded.))

((Sorry, what? Damn this morph is fun!)) Tobias was bounding around Rachel, and it took him a minute to get the happy dog brain under control. I couldn’t blame him, the smells of sea salt and sand and barbeque and the sounds of waves and birds and people having a great time… it was almost overwhelming. Especially as the morph was resisting again in a way that we’d once passed a long time ago.

“Tobias, settle down.” Rachel said, a lilt of amusement in her voice. “Good boy.”

Tobias’ tail brushed wildly in the sand. ((Sorry… um yeah, they had guards kinda posted around you know, to keep people from just butting in. Not a big deal.))

Silence for a few seconds. ((This looks more than that.))

Well. That sucked.

((I think you can still make it,)) she said at last, ((there are plenty of people around and plenty of animals with them but…))

More silence.

((But?) I supplied.

((I think three dogs all deciding to listen in is going to catch attention. I think it has to be a one dog job, and even then you probably shouldn’t hang around too long.))

((I’ll do it,)) I jumped in. ((I have more experience as a dog than either of you guys and well… it’s kinda my mission anyway,)) I tried to make light of it.

((Be careful, man.)) Marco whispered to me in private thought-speak. Of all of us, I’d only ever told Marco exactly what Tom had said that convinced me he was a Yeerk – when he told the rest of The Sharing that he’d brought me to the meeting on suspicion of seeing the Andalite… and that they should infest or kill me.

((I will,)) I replied, then wagged my trail and trotted over to the meeting place. I don’t remember if it was exactly in the same spot as last time, and maybe last time around I was too new at this to really understand what I was seeing, but these guys didn’t look just like friendly posts keeping people away. The looked… tense. Like maybe something was going to happen. A burly looking surfer dude gave me a long look, considering, and I bounded up to him and gave a playful bark. The tension in his face vanished and he gave me a pat then told me to go back to my owner.

I couldn’t help but wonder though, did I convince him that an Andalite bandit wouldn’t ask a Yeerk for a head pat? I sprang forward faster, like I had every right to enjoy the crisp evening wind and sand and that I had no concern for whatever was going on in between the dunes.

“-filters this morning. As soon as they arrive, you will need to ensure you have scanned yourself in. The results otherwise will not be pleasant.”

 _That_ caught my attention. Gleet Bio-filters, and I had to assume they were talking about Gleet Bio-filters, are designed to destroy any living thing that passes through them that doesn’t have the appropriate DNA code. The Yeerks had eventually started using them to protect the Yeerk Pool from us, but they definitely didn’t have them at this point. I racked my brain for when they started having them, but I couldn’t recall. I’d have to ask the others.

“No news yet from anyone about any human witnesses to the events last night.” I tuned back into the conversation. “The Visser doesn’t expect to hear anything, but that’s not an excuse to slack off. If I find out anyone has been sitting on suspicious activity, I won’t be pleased.”

I looked up at the speaker. Bald. Small glasses. Slightly overweight but nothing more than you’d expect from an older guy in an office job. He smelled heavily of cologne. Last time around I’d been so focused on Tom that I hadn’t really noticed anyone else. There were way to many people for me to identify, but this guy clearly had some clout. If we could find out who he was, that would definitely make this mission a success.

“Finally, everyone is reminded to keep an eye out for hostile remnants following our victory.” I moved forward, my tongue lolling out the side of my mouth and circling around to get a better view of the speaker – dog eyes just aren’t that good and the dying light wasn’t doing me any favors. “The Visser believes that some survivors may have made it onto the planet, and we are reminded that _they_ ” – for the first time, even among his own, the Yeerk gave away some truth of who he was with the raw hatred that accompanies that _they_ “– have the capacity to transform into any creature they come into contact with.” There was a low murmuring scattered among the ranks. I glanced towards Toms – his face was stoic. But then, Tom’s Yeerk wasn’t just a rank-and-file soldier, he was going places… or was, I planned on stopping that career short.

But not today, unfortunately. I lay down, when suddenly Cassie’s voice was in my head, alarmed. ((Jake, it’s time to go. Our cop is coming toward you and he doesn’t look happy.))

I jolted up, and yep, there was the cop from Cassie’s barn, and at my jump he moved faster towards me. “Good boy, good boy,” but there was a manic tone to it, and the dog half of me wanted to whine at the sound of it.

 _BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK_. Another dog ran through the meeting, and another hot on its heels! It was Marco, chasing Tobias and kicking up a storm of sand right through the Yeerk crowd. _YIP YIP YIP_ a dog that had nothing to do with any of us joined Marco and Tobias tearing around the edge of the meeting. I decided that was my cue. _BARK BARK_ and I let out a cheerful howl, doing my best to act as though the cop was completely forgotten as I rushed towards the other dogs. People were coming in now, trying to get us under control. Whatever else the meeting was for, it clearly was going to take some time before it happened now. The smaller dog was eventually brought back to its owner, with much apology for the disturbance. By the time anyone thought to look for us again, we were several hundred yards back down the beach, and as soon as Cassie gave the all clear we were shifting back into our normal selves putting back on our loose beach tees and swimming trunks. Cassie landed a little further down, and soon she was walking back towards us in a bright blue bikini.

“It wasn’t like that last time,” I said one back in my human body.

“Yeh, they’re definitely ready for us… or at least, they’re ready to be ready.” Rachel frowned, thinking that through. “Could be worse though.”

I nodded. “It sounds like the Visser is keeping things close to his chest. Guess he’s not really the sharing type, but he’s getting things moving.” I frowned. “This isn’t going to be a freebie, is it?”

Cassie rubbed my back as she came to stand beside me. “No, but we’ll make the best of it.”

“Well one thing is certain,” Marco added, looking at all of us after I mentioned that biofilters were probably enroute to Earth and the Visser was definitely paranoid about us. “We’re gonna need the firepower.” He smirked at Rachel. “You ready, Xena?”

Even in the last rays of light, her eyes shone. “Let’s do it.”

Tobias groaned, elbowing Marco in the ribs. “I thought you hated it when she says that.”

“I do, really,” he ducked a second jab. “But I’ve come to realize that I hate it even more when she doesn’t. It’s just not right.”

We walked back down the beach away from the Sharing and then came back in from the surf – at least somewhat disguising the fact that we were coming from exactly where the mysterious dogs had run off to, in the event anyone had been tracking us in the confusion. We went back to my house, it was dark now; the side of our garage is fenced in and at this time of night my parents would be on the opposite side of the house watching TV. And Tom of course would still be at the beach for a few hours more at least. Technically, I was spending the night at Marco’s after The Sharing so nobody would miss me. Without a word, we stored our loose clothes and shoes in a box I had left out earlier for this exact purpose, and three minutes later four ravens and a hawk took off for The Gardens. It was time to acquire the big guns.

Oh right, one more thing flashed through my mind as we flew into the darkness. We needed to acquire an owl.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Going into the Gardens at night as a bird is a lot different than going in during the day. Gone is the music of the amusement park or the sounds of kids running around enjoying themselves. Even the animals are quiet for the most part, those that aren’t locked up in interior sleeping areas. There were a few areas sorta lit up – the dolphins were still swimming around, and of course the raven’s eyes even in the weak light of security and maintenance lamps could see the occasional mouse or beetle, but it definitely had the feel of breaking into a fort more than a day at the zoo.

((Oh shoot.)) Cassie… well she didn’t really _curse_ , but the frustration in her voice was evident.

((What!) Marco cried out, clearly alarmed. Almost instinctively I swooped around, looking across the park for whatever had caught Cassie’s attention.

((We should have picked up our bug morphs first,)) Cassie grumbled. ((We can’t get in anywhere that’s locked up at night – I can’t believe we overlooked that.))

I couldn’t either. I guess remembering our usual daytime adventures to The Gardens and there was this sense of I dunno – inevitability? – that we would reacquire our morphs so it never even occurred to me that we couldn’t.

((Well, we’re off to a good start,)) Marco mentioned deadpan into the silence. ((What do we do?))

((Let’s go down anyway,)) Rachel of course. ((We need dolphin morphs at least, and not everything goes inside at night, right?))

((No, they don’t.)) Cassie confirmed.

((You guys are forgetting something,)) Tobias laughed. ((Cassie – if you had a raccoon or a squirrel, would that make things easier?))

Silence. ((Maybe. I don’t exactly know what security is like over the air vents and stuff but… yeh, maybe. For some things at least. But that means going all the way back to my place-)

((Yeah, if you didn’t have the best raccoon catcher on the planet with you. Chill guys, I got this.))

((Tobias, are you sure?)) I asked in private-speak.

((Yeah Jake, I got this.)) Then publicly, ((There’s two hanging out at the dumpsters behind the food court. Young – even I wouldn’t do this against a fully mature raccoon. I’ll grab one and you can all demorph there and acquire it.))

It worked exactly as planned, but then Tobias has so much more experience than us when it comes to anything bird it’s not even close. If Tobias said he could do it, then he could, simple as that.

The raccoon scrambled for a bit in Tobias’ talons, but as soon as Cassie finished demorphing she put her hand on it, calming it with the catatonic effect of acquiring DNA. The rest of us took turns.

“What about you?” Rachel asked while looking up at Tobias.

((I’ll pick up one tomorrow at the barn,)) he replied a little too airily. ((We’re probably coming back tomorrow, right? Whatever I miss out on tonight I can get then.))

I spared a look at Rachel, who looked like she was trying very hard not to say anything, biting slightly on her lower lip. 

“C’mon man, we can keep it secure while you demorph,” I cut in, keeping the impatience out my voice. I got it, I did. I cleared my throat. “Better safe than sorry, right.”

Tobias’s face turned lighting quick to me, hawk eyes glaring. Then after another second that dragged on slightly too long, his human self began to emerge, the hawk stretching up as if pulled on a medieval torture rack before filling out, feathers melting into human skin as if wax.

Cassie squeezed my hand. I’ve always been the leader of our group more by default than anything else, I never asked for it. As I mentioned to Cassie privately before our trip to the past, I had been having a bit of a personal reflection on what that meant. To Cassie, I said that it meant I wasn’t allowed to show fear. That if I started refusing to morph a fly because of a bad experience, that would give the others an excuse to avoid morphs that thy had bad experience with, and soon we would be paralyzed.

But it got me thinking about other things to. We were – we still are – a democracy on the big issues. I can’t and I won’t order my friends to do things they absolutely won’t. But sometimes there’s a moment when things could go one way or the other, and someone has to make the tough choice. And I’d accepted that that person was usually me. Whatever was up with Tobias, we needed him and someone needed to help him through it. He’s fearless as a hawk but clearly, he hasn’t completely shed the awkward new kid who got picked on as a human; maybe he just hasn’t had the time. I don’t know, but we were going to get through it.

Anyway, he acquired the raccoon, and then we put it down and got away before it got out of the morphing funk, by which point it apparently decided it had had enough of the dumpsters for one night and waddled away into the shadows after his friend.

We took to the skies again. There are a few night watchmen in the park, but from our birds’ eyes vantage they might as well not have been there. Seeing nobody near dolphin pool, we flew over and demorphed.

“I know this is going to sound ridiculously,” Marco whispered as we crept to the edge of the dolphin tank. “But I’m calling dibs on Joey again.” The dolphins had definitely noticed us now and let out a curious sort of squeak as three of them came over to check us out.

“I don’t think it’s weird,” Cassie replied. “I think it’s really cool. Like we belong to each other, in this life and the last.”

“Uh, yeah.” That was all Marco said about that.

There are six dolphins at The Gardens – Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler, and Joey. I know, I know. I didn’t name them.

There were also six _Animorphs_ , or there would be once we got Ax back. It would have been easier for all of us to have just acquired Ross, who stuck is nose up to us, but like I said morphing is more personal than that, and dolphins are way more special to morph than cockroaches. Cassie and Rachel were dropping themselves into the pool, which got the attention of the others. I patted Ross, concentrating on the dolphin, and my experiences as one, acquiring him once more. Cassie gestured to one and Marco reached out, presumably reacquainting himself with Joey.

We stayed for a few minutes after that, but in the end we had a lot of ground to cover tonight and not that much time to do it.

“Well, that went better that last time,” Tobias said as the girls got out of the pool. Rachel burst out laughing. “I forgot! You dove on a dolphin during a live show, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, and it didn’t even go into a trance. Terrifying,” Tobias grumbled.

“It’s a testament to how screwed up our lives are that a hawk riding a dolphin doesn’t even get a footnote,” Marco said with a sigh. He looked like he had another crack to make, but then his mouth fused into a beak.

What followed was honestly one of the most adrenaline pumping nights I’ve ever had since becoming an _Animorph_ in either timeline. We flew to the small North America exhibit first, where Rachel reacquainted herself with her favorite morph, the Grizzly Bear. She didn’t even blink, just flew into the compound and demorphed right there and acquired him, the bear didn’t even blink.

((She’s insane,)) Marco whispered to me from our perch. I didn’t disagree.

We skipped the wolves, figuring that the ones from Cassie’s barn were actually native to our exact area so were better than anything we could pick up here. We did hit up the alligators though – it wasn’t a morph that Rachel could acquire but it was a morph Visser Three wouldn’t be familiar with so Cassie and Tobias – the two who had never had any sort of really hard hitting battle morph – picked one up.

We weren’t all as cavalier as Rachel, though. So when the two of them started to demorph in the fake pond habitat, Rachel morphed Grizzly, ready to step in if anything went wrong.

((Ha! I missed this,)) Rachel cried out, exuberant. Paws that could smash a car punching like some boxer on steroids. But other than one lazy snap at Tobias we got out of there without a scene.

Then it was off to the African zone of the park, and we noted another flaw in our plan. To dodge all the guards, this was taking way more morphs than expected. One, that mean five minutes to morph and demorph every time, but also morphing is really tiring – sure we were better at it than we had been in a while but by the time we tried out the Racoon morphs for the first time and sneaking into African ‘overnight’ feeding pens, it’s safe to say we were starting to feel it.

“I think we’re going to have to come back tomorrow,” I said as we all returned to human, Rachel’s raccoon ‘bandit mask’ disappearing at the same time Marco regained his hands. “This is too much for one night.”

The others nodded. “Raccoon’s not bad though,” Marco said. “Rachel, we could totally do the whole Bonnie and Clyde thing, you know?”

Rachel snorted. “With you? Unlikely. Anyway-“ she shot me a smirk, “wouldn’t it be more natural if it were Jake and Cassie.”

“Nah,” Marco said at once. “It’s Jake. Mr. Responsibility. He’d be the one trying to catch us.” Marco stole a look at Cassie. “You can join us though. You’d be our Q, but for animals.”

“Ok so not only a criminal but you’re James Bond?” Tobias joined in.

“I could totally be James Bond,” Marco grumbled, but it was in jest.

Yeah. We were nervous. Because we were about to run the gauntlet of some of the most dangerous animals on the face of the Earth. Marco actually had it the easiest; he was going to pick up “Big Jim”, The Gardens silverback gorilla. Gorillas are incredibly strong animals and you definitely don’t want to mess with them – each of Big Jim’s fingers was the size of Marco’s wrist and each one could probably crack that wrist like it was a twig. But Gorillas are also very gentle if you’re gentle back.

Tigers, on the other hand, are _not_. Tigers see humans as food, or something to hunt just for fun. There are still villages to this day that live in fear of tigers. And as if that weren’t enough, I was also going to be acquiring a Rhino on this trip. The others had their own animals to deal with as well.

“First stop, Elephants,” Cassie whispered as we snuck out of the laundry room we had emerged through the ventilation into. I don’t know why the animals needed a laundry room, but it was there, giant industrial sized machines and walls lined with plastic canisters of various chemicals. We snuck out. I remembered this – while The Gardens exhibits to a pretty good job of trying to mimic each animal’s natural habitat, the area back here was just like walking through a hallway at school – monotone, some okay lighting, not run down or anything but definitely not fancy. We undid the bolt and went into the sleeping bays for the Elephants, which were basically big concrete stalls lined with straw, with a walkway area for workers to hand over food or medicine or whatever without actually stepping into the bays.

“Who are we looking for?” Tobias whispered.

Cassie paused. “Male Elephants can actually be quite sociable with each other even if it’s not normally their thing,” she said after a while. “So it’s probably ok if you both acquire the male. I don’t think there’s any risk of you getting in a fight over a lady elephant,” she mumbled at the end. She cleared her throat. “It’s not like with the wolves.”

“No problem then,” we walked along the walkway, and again Rachel just reached out and stroked the giant, half-awake Elephant, sending it back into a stupor. Tobias followed suit. It wasn’t fair, I thought uncharitably. Granted Rachel had also had to touch a grizzly bear and Tobias an alligator, but the stress of waiting was doing no favors to my nerves.

We walked back out. “Okay one down, six to go.”

“Six?” Marco whispered under his breath. “Jesus.”

I shot him a look. Marco isn’t exactly religious but his mom had been, and he tended keep his swearing… secular, unless he was really nervous. He shrugged. “I’d forgotten how dangerous this all was,” he waved his arm around vaguely. “Or maybe first time round I didn’t realize what I’d gotten myself into. I dunno, it’s just lately it felt like we’d already done all the dangerous stuff and it’s just a morph here, a morph there, usually something we can pick up at Cassie’s barn.”

“Alright, we’re here.” Cassie interrupted our little heart to heart. “Marco, you’re up.” She gave him a grin and opened the door. And despite what he had just said, Marco grinned back.

“Hey, Kong,” he spoke quietly, his voice soothing. Big Jim woke up and grunted at us, shambling over to the side of his cage. Marco looked around the room, eyes setting on a fridge set up at the back of the room. Opening it, he pulled out an apple. Big Jim’s eyes focused on the apple, like maybe there was a reason to not go back to sleep after all.

“Hey buddy – got a nice tasty apple for you,” Marco kept his voice hushed and moved forward slowly. Honestly, Big Jim looked like he wanted him to get on with it. Marco pushed the apple against the bars and with all a daintiness I didn’t know he had he plucked the apple through the bars and ate half in a single bite, giant teeth crashing and chomping. With a slight gulp, Marco reached in and touched the Gorilla. He looked at Marco for a second and then went numb, the other half of the apple tumbling into the bottom of the cage.

“Done,” Marco let out with a whoosh, backing up quicker than he had moved forward. Big Jim came to and went for the last half of the apple as we were closing the door behind us.

Cape Buffalo came next. You don’t think _Buffalo_ when you think of Lions and Tigers and Bears but trust me, they deserve to be up there. It can kill you in like six different ways and is widely (among people who know) regarded as one of the most dangerous animals in the world.

So it was weird to think of sweet, conflict-avoiding-whenever-she-can-help-it-and-sometimes-even-when-she-can’t Cassie acquiring it, but acquire it she did.

Of all of us, Cassie had been the most avoidant of ever acquiring a ‘real’ battlemorph. Well except Tobias obviously, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, she’s been invaluable to us in her usually wolf form. But wolf was a morph we had all acquired, and we usually used it more as a way to move around in rough places. Wolves have incredible endurance and fairly good speed, naturally move together and can definitely put up a fight. But frankly, as a dedicated morph for combat it wasn’t the best. I think part of it was Cassie didn’t want to see herself as going into a fight deliberately looking to kill, if that makes sense. I think the Buffalo – a dangerous creature but not such a… obvious killer as a tiger or a bear, was her way of trying to bridge the gap. I respected that.

Cheetahs were next. I could make it all dramatic but we didn’t have any issues with them.

The next stop though saw Rachel pause and take a deep breath as we reached the door.

“Nervous, Xena?” Marco asked.

“I want to make one thing very, _very_ clear,” Rachel said with a dangerous hint of seriousness. “Tobias, you are my witness.” Tobias nodded. “If you Marco, ever ever _ever_ make a Lion King joke about this in any way, no matter how subtle, I will kill you. Are you clear?”

“Relax, I would never do that,” he replied, making a show of zipping his lips.

“Mm,” Rachel didn’t look particularly convinced. Tobias snorted.

We went into the lion’s den. Nobody said a word, but I know we were all thinking the same thing. Well, we were all thinking about the Lion that could tear an arm off long before an arm stuck in the cage could actually touch it, but we were _also_ thinking of the second, same thing.

David.

“It’s a good morph.” I said at last. “It’s a good choice.”

“And it’s a good plan,” Cassie added. “Never let the Yeerks know exactly who we are this time.”

Marco frowned, although whether because of the memories of David, or because he was about to have to touch a full grown male lion, who could say. “We know our old morphs. I _know_ Kong. I’m still not sure about this”

It was a big point of contention, whether or not adding morphs was something we wanted to do. Marco was right, we knew our main morphs like they were part of us, their abilities and limitations. And even more importantly how well they worked together. But having more options couldn’t be a bad idea.

“We’re not saying we have to use the lions,” Cassie coaxed, following my train of thought in a far less argumentative way. “Just that it would be a good addition to the arsenal. Nobody’s replacing Big Jim.”

Marco nodded at that, then let out a breath of air. “OK, Rachel – let’s go.”

“Already have,” Rachel’s voice was full of amusement as she walked back from a lioness.

“You’re up, Mustafa.”

“Hey, I thought we just agreed no-”

“We agreed for _you._ Now c’mon we’ve got things to do.”

Unlike the lioness who just slept through us, the Lion was not happy. He stared at us, eyes never leaving Marco as he inched closer. “This is such a bad idea,” Marco groaned as he inched forward. The Lion’s mouth opened, a giant chasm lined with teeth as long as my fingers.

“David did it, you can do it too,” Cassie called out when Marco froze. That got him moving – he shot her a dirty look and with a final _shhh nice kitty_ he acquired the morph, face frozen the entire time.

“Next time we go back in time, maybe we take our morphs with us, just an idea,” he said shakily as we left. He was laughing though a little now, his gait relaxed. We only had two morphs left to pick up in this part, and by random chance they both fell on me. Rhinoceros and Tiger. Two of the scariest creatures on the earth.

Rhino went well. And I’ll admit, at that point I got cocky.

Now, about the tiger. It’s my favorite morph, it’s not even close. The raw power and confidence and just… it’s _cool._ Siberian tigers are the largest cats in the world. I looked it up after my first time acquiring him, and the male Siberian Tiger at The Gardens is just over seven hundred pounds, and over seven feet long, not even including the tail. Almost all of that bulk is raw muscle like liquid steel, capable of propelling him to bursts of speed over fifty-miles an hour. Its roar alone exceeds one-hundred decibels, putting it around a jackhammer, only waaaay more terrifying.

And when we entered the tiger pen, it looked at us and let out that roar that still terrifies thousands of villages to this day.

And it was looking at me. In a ‘oh look, dinner is serving itself,’ sort of way, like it couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to care. It wasn’t a look I wanted aimed at me.

“Oh this is bull-” Marco.

I pushed him, but I didn’t disagree.

“You won’t remember me,” I swallowed. “But we’ve been a team before.”

Rachel actually let out a nervous giggle at that.

I stood there outside the tiger cage for about five minutes and nobody pushed me, even though we were on a schedule. We still had a trip to the reptile house if our raccoon forms could get in, and the spider monkeys we had discussed earlier. Finally the tiger got bored closed his eyes, like even from between the bars it was telling us “meh, I could get you if I wanted but you’re not worth my time.”

I raised a hand, slowly. I was shaking.

I shoved my hand in between the bars as fast as he could.

The tiger was faster.

“Oh, screw me,” Marco screamed, as I was pulled up against the cage, my wrist caught in the tiger’s mouth and my shoulder was jammed against metal and twisted painfully. He was already morphing gorilla.

“I’m okay,” I cried out, weakly. My eyes watered but I took a shaky breath. The Tiger hadn’t even been trying to kill me, that was just a “go away can’t you see I’m sleeping” “I… I think I’ve got him.”

Sure enough, the tiger was in a trance. We’ve always sorta thought of acquiring as requiring touch in the sense of pet, but a tooth halfway through your wrist while your fingers uselessly flopped on a tiger’s tongue did the trick to. “I’m- I’m doing it. I’m acquiring him.”

Marco was a gorilla now. ((What’s the play dude?))

I looked at the tiger in the trance and down at my shattered arm disappearing into the tiger’s mouth. I had maybe ten seconds when he’d still be in trance after I stopped the acquiring process, but was that enough time to get my hand out in any state? I doubted it. A long gash went up to my elbow. The tiger’s tongue had flopped out of its mouth during all of this, and I was cradling it in a loop between my thumb and forefinger.

“Jake, I think you’ve got it, you need to let go. Jake – Jake look at me.” Cassie touched his cheek.

I nodded shakily. Marco came forward. ((This is gonna hurt. Morph dog as soon as your free.)) I grunted.

“One, two… three!”

Marco pulled me back, and my arm erupted in agony.

Rachel’s voice cut through my pain. “Jake, cuz. You need to morph. Right now. Morph.”

Vaguely, I felt Cassie’s hands rubbing small circles on his back.

((Jake, buddy. Morph.))

I took another agonized breath, and then started to concentrate. My ruined arm started to erupt in fur.

“Your doing great,” Cassie soothed. “Keep going.”

I got faster after that, the first burst was all I had needed to get my focus back.

((I’m okay.)) I tested my leg, shifting weight onto one paw and of course it was fine. ((Yeah. I’m okay.))

The tiger went back to sleep during all of this.

((We’re done for tonight.)) Marco said, voice brooking no argument.

I agreed.

I morphed back to my human self, and by the time I was back to myself, we were ready to move again. Tobias and Cassie had found a mop and scrubbed away most of my blood, hopefully leaving the morning staff none the wiser.

It left us exhausted though. We’d gone through several morphs now in the span of a few hours, and picked up about half a dozen morphs each, not even including our earlier mission on the beach. There was no sense trying to dodge any more guards or get inside unnoticed all so adrenaline shot.

“Pick up tomorrow then,” I asked the group. Nobody said anything against that.

“Right, let’s go home.”

Home, in this case, was rather ill defined as everyone was allegedly spending the night at someone else’s. We’d dealt with this a couple of times before, making a bit of a bunker in the upper level of Cassie’s barn… but of course, when we arrived, none of our previous arrangements exited, because we hadn’t made them yet. Rachel let out a sigh, but all of us were too tired to worry too much about it. We didn’t even have our real clothes, which were still hidden at my house.

“So this is what I’d been missing out on before,” Tobias said around a yawn.

“Yeah, five star accommodations, that’s us.” Marco mumbled as he took his usual spot in the northeast corner.

Technically, Tobias was the one of us who could have gone back home tonight, I’m pretty sure he hadn’t told his uncle anything of his evening plans one way or the other, and his uncle wouldn’t care where he ended up anyway. It said a lot that he would rather curl up on the wooden floor than back to a real bed.

We woke up around eight, still exhausted. We didn’t say much as we went our separate ways; three ravens and a hawk flying out of the barn as Cassie stayed behind, presumably to change into her work clothes and start to work on her chores. The thought made me groan, I had to mow the lawn and it hit me I probably had who knows what school work still waiting that I would need to get done – again. I couldn’t even hope for a few more hours of sleep, not if I expected my parents to let me go out again in the evening. I started to regret not just getting it all over with last night; even if all went well we weren’t going to be out that late on a school night.

I got through it alright. Just zombie my way through the lawn and it turned out I did have some homework to do, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. I zoomed through it. Tom came out when I was mowing the lawn to give me some brotherly grief, like everything was perfectly normal. He asked about what I thought of The Sharing and I told him we all had a good time. He laughed, the Yeerk in his head ‘admitting’ he had had a good time with us too, and that we all should join so we could hang out more often. And then, so slight that I almost missed it, Tom’s face twitched and the eyes looking back at me were his own.

And then it was gone and Tom was laughing and heading back inside. But it felt good to know my brother was still fighting. Still trying to protect me. I was going to rescue him.

We all met up again in the mid-afternoon. Marco pulled out a deck of playing cards when he showed up.

“Is that what I think it is?” Rachel asked.

“Depends,” he said with a look of disgust. “Do you think it’s a cockroach.”

Rachel’s nose wrinkled and she let out a sigh. “Yeh, I did, actually.”

“It’s not bad, as far as bugs ago,” Cassie mediated.

“No, it’s just utterly disgusting,” Marco countered. “Anyway, and I can’t believe I’m the one saying it… let’s do it.”

We touched the roach. Even after all this time – even after becoming a roach – it’s still gross.

Thankfully that was for later; morphed birds for the flight to The Gardens. Tobias again went hawk. I didn’t push it.

Sunday, The Gardens closes at four. Already the park was beginning to empty. There was one exception though, a large group in front of the tiger exhibit looking really out of place. Like they weren’t there to enjoy the animals. It took me a minute to realize what it was that tipped me off – they were quiet. No pointing or shouting. In fact, there weren’t any kids with them at all.

Maybe the hawk has better eyes than the raven or maybe Tobias has forgotten more about being a bird than I’ll ever learn, but either way he made a connection first. ((That guy up front, it’s Mr. Chapman. What’s he doing here?))

Mr. Chapman was the assistant vice-principal at our school and also one of the highest ranking Yeerk Controllers in our area. Honestly, given where we’ve seen him giving orders before I’m not even sure why they leave whatever Yeerk it is in the body of someone so… normal. I mean he’s a sort of pillar-of-community type but I’ve seen Mr. Chapman giving orders to cops like it’s nothing, so why his Yeerk just isn’t Chief of Police I don’t know. I don’t always understand the Yeerks but anyway I’m digressing, the point is yes, a very important Yeerk was looking around at the tigers. At _my_ tiger. My blood ran cold.

((Change of plans,)) I said, thinking quickly. ((Half of us will still pick up snakes as planned and the other half keep an eye on this.))

((I should stay,)) Tobias said very quickly. ((I’ve got way more experience spying in bird bod- morph than any of you.))

((I’ll stay too,)) Rachel added a moment later, sounding slightly faraway.

I nodded, it was good enough and no need to labor the point. Besides, we probably needed Cassie to get inside the back of the reptile house anyway.

((Alright – we shouldn’t take longer than an hour if all goes well, then we’ll meet here again and pick up the monkeys then go home.))

We split up. It gave me an uneasy feeling – this time around last time had been our first trip into the Yeerk pool and I’d been completely focused on freeing Tom, but I think we would have heard if a large group Controllers were at The Gardens, our number one source for animal morphs, old and new. It wasn’t good.

((Alright Cassie, lead the way,)) Marco interrupted my thoughts. ((At least these snakes have all been devenomized.))

((How do you know that?)) I asked, mildly surprised.

((I checked, duh.)) Marco replied. ((Online last night. Do any of us know how morphing effects poison? I don’t want to be the guinea pig.))

I hadn’t thought about that. Ax had actually poisoned Visser Three with a snake morph a while back, but the Yeerks had been able to rescue him. But, on reflection, Alloran – that’s the name of the Andalite Visser Three controls, hadn’t just fixed the problem right then by morphing. It was unnerving to think about.

((Rooftop straight ahead,)) Cassie called out. We landed and staying low began to demorph. The last group of the day’s visitors were exiting. It was time to pick up the second to last morph we had decided upon for now. Originally, the plan was for all of us to acquire a snake, but we’d have to make do with three for now. I put the thoughts out of my mind – of snakes, of whatever Tobias and Rachel were spying on, and the fact that I wouldn’t be rescuing Tom tonight, not even trying. I just thought about the Raccoon, and began to shrink.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

The reptile house wasn’t a big deal. Unlike the big animals we had acquired the night before, these snakes were harmless in their current form. Plus, the back side of the snake area was designed for transporting snakes, so all the equipment needed to grab them without being bitten was just lined up right out of sight of the exhibits. Marco picked up a king cobra, a morph he had acquired before but only used once, and I acquired an enormous eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

“What about you,” I asked Cassie as she started heading back the way we came. She paused.

“I can’t.” she said. “I know we fight. I know that we… that a lot of the Controllers don’t make it through our battles. But there’s no way we’re using snake morphs for anything but deliberate assassination and I just can’t.” She looked up me, face imploring. I nodded. Whether because I agreed that was the only reason for these morphs, recognizing that Cassie couldn’t do it, or just acknowledging that she had spoken – I don’t know. But she grabbed my hand and gave me a squeeze anyway, which I returned.

“Thanks, Jake.” There was a pause then she clapped her hands. “So! I think that does it for now. I mean, I guess a tortoise or giant lizard might come in useful at some point, but it’s hard to imagine when.” She trailed off. Marco shrugged. They both looked at me.

“Let’s get back to the others,” I said instead. I think we were all still focused on the Sharing being here.

We heard a door opening. Cassie froze. “That’s the main door,” she hissed. “it should be closed now.” We heard muffling noises coming from the other side of the wall. There were several footsteps and snatches of conversation carried to us – this wasn’t just a single janitor coming by for the evening rounds. “What do we do?” Cassie asked.

“Marco – raccoon. Get up to the roof and see if you can get in touch with Tobias and Rachel. Cassie and I will go roach and see if we can’t get closer to whoever’s on the other side. It’s probably nothing but-“

“-but there’s a lot of probably nothing going on today,” Marco finished for me. He was already shrinking, his skin patterned with fur that hadn’t sprouted yet as his face started to distort. “Just let me turhgh awiii-“ he cut off as the morph took away his ability to speak. ((Just let me get out of here before you become giant cockroaches. I don’t need the nightmares.))

He started scampering back toward the ducts even before his morph was finished. “Ready?” Cassie asked.

“Not even close,” I whispered back, but we both started morphing – facing away from each other. We’ve done this before but Marco wasn’t joking, the transformation from human to roach is one of our ugliest. For me the first thing this time round was two giant human-sized cockroach legs bursting out of my chest, like a combo of _Alien_ and _The Fly_. I started shrinking, like falling and the ground rushes up at you but you never hit. My skin turned black and began to harden. Thankfully my roach eyes came in next, so I didn’t see much after that.

((Predators. Predators everywhere. Run run run run run.)) I fought the roach for control. I got it fairly quickly even with the weird reset thing we were going through, but the roach brain was there on the background and it was not happy being inside a hall of reptiles.

Let’s find a crack in the wall, go to the other side, I steered the roach brain. I saw another roach, presumably Cassie scuttle up beside me. ((You good?)) she asked. ((Yeh.)) We scurried to the wall, my antennae sensing the air around me every few seconds. ((Over there!) Cassie yelled in my head then scurried off to the right. I followed – sure enough, at the base where the concrete flooring hit the wall there was a tiny crack – totally harmless by human standards but a way through – if tight – for the roach. We scurried in, and as soon as we did the roach brain was happy to just hang out here. It was dark. There smells of predators was replaced by damp must. All was good to the roach. I mean sure, ideally there would have been something to eat, some discarded trash or whatever but it was willing to settle for now with safe and dark.

I pushed ahead anyway, following Cassie. For five minutes we went through the maze of tiny hairline fractures in the foundation, and then my antennae caught a slight breeze.

((Are we on the right side?)) I asked.

((I think so)) Cassie replied. ((I don’t think we doubled back but I mean, you know, roach.))

I did know. ((Well let’s find out,)) I said. We came out into the shadow of a big silver box suspended above us that I could barely make out, but we were definitely in the main part of the reptile house. I heard the sound of running water.

((We’re near the bathrooms,)) Cassie supplied. ((I think that big thing up there is the water fountain between them.)) Up ahead there were a group of people and we both moved toward them. Roaches can’t really hear human speech, and what it can make out the roach brain isn’t really interested in beyond loud noise coming or loud noise going. But we’d had lots of practice in this morph and knew how to keep the morph focused and also how to sorta translate vibrations into actual words.

((All species… accounted? for)) Cassie translated. ((Urgency. Official story of something, terrorism?))

I shimmied in the dim light across the floor and to a dark blue sneaker that towered around me. It was like trying to finetune an old radio and clear out the hisses and pops of static, but I got it again.

“-planning to attack this facility. ---- there isn’t enough time but ------ once they have regrouped will begin harassment ---”

I had a bad feeling where this was going, and then I caught a line that removed any doubt. “---contacts in The Sharing. --- be clear, Visser --- absolute top priority.”

((Oh no.) Cassie’s thoughts radiated horror in those two words as we reached the same conclusion.

((I know.)) I replied ((Let’s go – we need to find the others)). The group of feet left, turning away from whatever snake they had been focused on. ((Maybe Tobias and Rachel have more information.))

We went out the now open main door, before rushing around to the side of the house, under a chainlink fence that keeps visitors on the main paths. If the Yeerks were coming for The Gardens that was really bad. One, it meant that Visser Three was back with us for sure, and had taken a moment to reflect on what he’d done wrong the first time. And we couldn’t really afford the Yeerks fixing their own mistakes. Without access to The Gardens, acquiring morphs would be a lot harder. And even more worryingly, the Visser wasn’t wasting any time shoring up his own defenses. A sickening feeling went through me – what if going back in time just mean we lost the war even faster?

((Tobias. Rachel. Marco? Can you hear us?))

((Yeah, what’s up?)) Tobias.

((We’re two roaches hanging out next to a big tan tower around the side of the reptile house. Are we clear to morph out?))

(Gimme a sec… ok, ok – yeh, I see you. All clear, but stay low, the group you were following are walking away but near enough they could see you if you stood up.))

We demorphed. Fully human, I could see how terrified Cassie was. She looked at me and before she could say anything I realized what was wrong. “We’ll figure something out,” I whispered. “I promise.”

We morphed raven again. I really missed my falcon – hopefully not much longer – but raven was pretty cool. Not as fun as seagull, but still cool.

Rachel filled us in, mostly confirming what we already knew. ((The Sharing is organizing an animal rights event at The Gardens. They’re not going to be political about it, just a general ‘animal awareness thing and saving endangered species’. The guy they were talking to – I don’t think he’s a Controller. Not yet anyway.))

((The guy who let them look around the reptile house definitely is,)) I added.

((We’ve got a huge problem on our hands if the Yeerks take The Gardens,)) Marco cut in, sounding incredibly frustrated. ((I mean yeah, we lose our one stop shop for morphs, but if we think ahead we can mostly work around that, even though it’s gonna be a pain. God, I wish one of us could drive.)) Watching a raven shake his head to clear it midflight isn’t something that I think is even possible, but Marco did it.

((But that’s beside the point. It means Visser Three is proactively fixing his mistakes, which means he knows he made those mistakes… and it means he has the clout to get the entire Yeerk forces to move on a dime for his edicts.))

((Well yeah, he’s the leader of the invasion so of co-))

((No!)) Marco shouted. ((Sorry – but no. The Yeerk invasion is underway already right. I mean The Sharing has been around for what, six months now? Maybe a little more? And we know they’ve infiltrated the police and a whole host of other things. The Yeerk pool exists. Anyone who works in the EGS tower is probably compromised if you think about it. Point is, resources have been _committed_. So for even Visser Three at this point to just say, ‘oh, I need you to conquer the Zoo _tomorrow_ , shows either a lot of clout even for him or a reserve we didn’t even know about before. This is bad.))

We landed, demorphed, snuck into the spider monkey exhibit, acquired one, and got back in the air without much more than an afterthought to it, still focused on what to do. We were back in the air when I thoughtspoke privately to Cassie. ((We need to remind them. I’ll do it if you don’t want to.))

((No. I’ll do it.)) Then publicly. ((Guys, there’s another problem. My mom is the head vet here, remember? Even if the Yeerks don’t take everyone, they’ll definitely take her.))

Silence for a moment. (Dammit!)) Rachel. ((Oh my god I’m so sorry I can’t believe I forgot that. I’m really sorry it’s just with all going on I-))

((It’s fine,)) Cassie soothed. ((I know, believe me I understand how much of a shock this is but yeah. And… look, I know that it’s not the most important mission, I know that Jake with Tom and you, Marco – I understand it’s selfish of me. But I can’t.))

Surprisingly, it was Marco who cut in. ((You’re mother can’t be allowed to be taken by the Yeerks.)) Even in morph his voice broke a little there.

((Thanks.)) Cassie said.

((No, she _can’t_ be allowed to become a Controller)) Marco continued. ((Yes, because she’s your mom and we’ve taken enough crap in this war than to just let this happen. But, one more Yeerk in one of our households is one more Yeerk to notice discrepancies in our schedules. To get curious. At least-)) Marco paused ((at least my mom isn’t here, right? She’s light years away from Earth. And not only that, but a Yeerk so close to the Rehabilitation Clinic – you think the Yeerks wouldn’t suddenly look at all those wolves and birds and rodents and start to get ideas?))

((Ok ok yes it is really really _really_ bad when before it was just really really bad.)) Rachel ground out. ((So what do we do!?))

We were quiet for a few minutes, flying out of The Gardens, flying back to our lives that were an illusion of calm.

((Tomorrow is Monday – the day we originally rescued Tom. The day we went down to the Yeerk Pool.))

(Oh no Jake don’t say it I don’t like this thought already.))

((Does Visser Three remember exactly which day we attacked the Yeerk Pool? Maybe. Maybe not. If we attack, we give the Yeerks something to worry about and also show them it’s too late to worry about stopping us from acquiring any new morphs.))

((I’m not out,)) Marco said. ((But we can’t just go in, scream a bit, and then run away with our lives if we’re lucky. We need a plan, and a target.))

((I spent a good bit of time in their the first time,)) Tobias said at last. ((I got a bird’s eye view of the place. And we know it’s more than a pool, they’ve got all sort of stuff down there.))

That was true. We call it the Yeerk Pool, but it’s a giant complex that you could play the Super Bowl in and still have room left over for a couple of malls to get lost in. It has a cafeteria, office buildings, storage warehouses full of who knows what and they even have a way to bring Bug Fighters down there.

((Ok, so we avoid the pool and trash something periphery? That sounds more doable.)) Marco spoke slowly, like he was puzzling out all the options even as he spoke – which he probably was. Even at his most negative, maybe _especially_ at his most negative, Marco is always looking at all the options.

((All we really need to do in the Yeerk Pool to shift their focus is show that we can get in and out without them being able to stop us. So what if the Yeerk Pool was really a feint? Something to draw resources away from our real target and put some fear in them. And then we went after a completely different target?))

((Go on,)) I prompted when he fell silent. Nobody said anything, not even Rachel gave Marco any snark.

((So we go down to the pool, but we don’t go battle morph. We go in, and then broadcast a message to the pool. ‘We are the Andalites and we will save you.’ Enough to rile up security and even more importantly put the Yeerks on edge, and Controllers that start resisting the Yeerks again, thinking there’s hope again. Visser Three probably beheads half his security detail, knowing him. It shifts the Yeerks focus.))

((It’s safer.)) I agreed. ((And it still accomplishes something.))

((Psh, not enough.)) Rachel argued. ((Anyway, the Yeerks know there are ‘Andalite Bandits’ that survived.

((No, they don’t,)) Cassie injected, her voice stronger than it had been before. More hopeful. They _think_ there might be. Visser Three has told them to expect it. But they don’t _know_. It’s the difference between worrying about a bad thing and then having that bad thing come down on you. It will upset them.

((Ok, fine,)) Rachel accepted, but continued on her own train of thought. ((But it’s not going to slow them down much. They probably had the same problems the first time we went through, but it didn’t really change anything for them. So-))

((So like I said, it’s just a feint,)) Marco piped back in. ((We turn their focus on the pool, we lull Visser Three into the sense that events are going exactly like last time, and then we suckerpunch them.))

((Suckerpunch them how?)) I asked, sure I wouldn’t be overly enthusiastic about the answer.

I wasn’t. That didn’t mean Marco was wrong with his suggestion.

((The Kandrona.))

((I like it!)) Rachel of course. ((And they won’t expect it. It was months last time before we destroyed the Kandrona, they won’t expect it.))

((I don’t know)) I replied, trying to be the voice of reason. ((The Kandrona is sixty floors up the EGS tower and last time it was a blood bath we barely survived. Even if the Yeerks don’t do anything except disable the elevators, we’re screwed.))

((Yeh, which is the second reason we need to go to Yeerk Pool,)) Marco cut in even before Rachel could disagree with me. His voice was tinged with disgust. ((There’s something we need to pick up from the Yeerk Pool.)) More than disgust.

((What?)) Tobias asked.

Marco was silent for a second. Then, ((A Taxxon morph.))

Sunday was a school night, so there wasn’t more time for anything more but to hash out the pros and cons on the rest of the flight home, and draw short straws as to who got the Taxxon morph. Cassie is the best at controlling new morphs and Tobias was the closest to Ax so that got him selected as our ‘Andalite Bandit’. In the end we kept the same teams as earlier; me and Marco would be with Cassie to help grab a Taxxon and acquire it as well, and Rachel would be our second Bandit. We also talked about acquiring a Hork Bajir if we had a chance.

Our rule has always been not to morph sentient creatures without the permission, but it was a rule that we’d increasingly bent over time. Cassie was still against it but Marco, Rachel, and Tobias were all for it. A majority no matter which way I chose, and a rule I was lukewarm about at this point anyway. Personally, I was having doubts we’d be able to subdue a Taxxon and keep it quiet enough to demorph and acquire in the middle of the Yeerk Pool, let alone doing the same to a Hork Bajir.

“Jake, is that you?” My mom’s voice called out from the kitchen when I let myself in. I paused. _Clack clack_. She was typing then, good. “Yeah, it’s me,” I called out, letting her know who it was but not going in to disturb her. I snuck past the door and headed up to my room. “That’s good, honey,” her voice trailed after me. I finished the last of my homework and tried to zone out for a bit on video games, clearing my head. Had dinner, tried to make normal conversation with my parents and Tom’s Yeerk, and went to bed.

I dreamed that night of the Yeerk Pool. I was a tiger, like I had been that first time. Cassie was at the pier, about to be infested. I tried to jump to rescue her but I couldn’t move. Then Cassie became Tom. He looked at me and I fled. I woke up, and for a moment it occurred to me that at least this time round I hadn’t eaten a spider, as if that was my biggest concern. It took a while to get back to sleep after that.

It was our first day back in school since travelling back, which was weird. Going through classes the same as last time, trying to remember what I had been doing with this time around. Early on, we had been careful to not be too much of a ‘group’ at school, so as to avoid any sudden changes. I was still hanging out with Terry and Juan as much as I was with Marco at school, but over time we’d sort of ended up forming our own group anyway, there just weren’t enough hours in the day to not use every minute we had. And with Marco and I being friends forever, Rachel being my cousin and Cassie being increasingly my sorta but not girlfriend, it hadn’t been totally out the blue. Tobias was the odd one out, but not to be rude about it but after I’d saved him from some bullies the last time around, he’d been hanging on the fringe of our group around this time anyway. If he’d stayed human and none of this had ever happened he probably would have ended up drifting away again, but it wasn’t last time so I asked him if he wanted to join us, to at least make it look more natural for prying eyes.

Rachel and Cassie came to sit with us at lunch this time anyway, and I guess word started to spread that me and Cassie we’re ‘going out’, but I just didn’t have the mind anymore for school drama. We didn’t even get a chance to talk, because Rachel invited Melissa to join us. Melissa is Mr. Chapman’s daughter, and last time she’d been drifting away at this point – it turned out her home life had completely gone to pieces after her parents were taken by Yeerk, and even worse she didn’t know why. I know Tom had been drifting away because his Yeerk had other plans, but to have both your parents suddenly turn into other people – I got it. Rachel gave us a look and Melissa eventually joined us after looking for a second like she might bolt. I shrugged – it’s not like we could really talk about things in the middle of the lunch room.

The afternoon passed soon enough and as soon as the last bell rang the five us made our back to my house – except Cassie who had evening chores. As soon as we reached Rachel’s house, Tobias morphed hawk and went out Rachel’s window, to follow Cassie. I know events had changed, obviously, but after what happened last time we weren’t taking any chances and the cop had still been at Cassie’s barn – better for her to have backup right away. I called my mom and Marco called his dad and let them know that we were at Rachel’s doing our homework together. Which wasn’t even a lie, even if it was more of an afterthought.

“What we really need,” Marco was insisting in hushed tones. “Is a Controller morph. I know it’s gross to think about, but the safest way into the Yeerk Pool is as a Controller.”

Rachel’s door was closed and her Mom and sisters weren’t home yet, but we kept our voices down with one ear out. “I agree.”

Marco’s face blanked into confusion for a second, not expecting straightforward agreement to one of his plan’s from Rachel. “Well, ok then. Jake?”

I shrugged. “Cassie will be against it.” I held up a hand to keep Marco from interrupting. “And I think she’s wrong. I get why we had that rule but it’s not the worst thing we’re going to end up doing before this war is over. Tobias will agree with you and Rachel, without reservation but… well, who would we go as right now anyway? Anyone we use we put at risk. I can’t do that to Tom. We can’t do it to Mr. Chapman… and anyone else we use is also someone’s brother or dad that we’re setting up as a target for the Yeerks.”

“What we really need,” Marco reflected, “Is to learn that trick Ax used. You know – to create a morph out of all of us. Then we could have human morphs that nobody could track, or reference.”

I paused – it was eerily like something David had once said to me. “It’s worth thinking about,” I said without a real answer. “But we don’t have Ax here yet and we don’t even have a controller, so what’s the plan with what we can do _now_.”

“We need to pick up flies again,” Rachel said after a moment, not really offering an idea but throwing the pieces of one out there. We are a pretty well oiled machine at this by now. “But their vision isn’t great and trying to get around the Yeerk Pool as one doesn’t thrill me. Roaches are better but…” We all knew what that _but_ was – we had almost been eaten as cockroaches by a Taxxon on our second trip to the Yeerk Pool. We _had_ been eaten, having to demorph off a Taxxon’s tongue, thanks to the first intervention on our behalf… sorta our behalf – by the Ellimist.

“A lot is riding on the idea that the Yeerks haven’t been able to modify the defenses of the pool in only three days.” Marco, of course. “Not a bad bet but you know, it’s our lives on the other end.”

“I honestly think we’re fine there,” I added, taking a moment to figure out why I was so sure of that before responded to Marco’s raised eyebrow. “The Biofilters and stuff have to come from far away; even if Visser Three ordered them as soon as he came back in the past, it’s going to take time to get them. It took the Yeerks weeks to get a replacement Kandrona to Earth. There’s no way any additional gadgets have a higher priority than that.”

Marco nodded. “Fair enough. Ok, so we can get in. And Tobias can get out. Probably.”

Rachel growled. “We’re not doing anything that risks Tobias being trapped again.”

“We should wait,” I said after a few more frustrating minutes. “We can go to the mall tomorrow, acquire a total stranger. Or even better fly down to the airport, someone who won’t even be in town by the time we go down there.”

“We can’t.” Rachel let out a sigh. “Every day is another day Visser Three can make changes. We have to do this, then take out the Kandrona as fast as we can. Doing that now will put us so far ahead of where we were it’s not even funny. Not doing it…” Rachel trailed off, but Marco and I knew exactly what not doing it meant.

It meant speeding up the invasion of Earth. It meant our time meddling making this far worse, erasing every victory we’d had.

“We go cockroach,” Marco said. “The important part of the plan is finding and grabbing a Taxxon. God, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. So we go down, do some recon based on what Tobias remembers, and see what we can do. Worst case, we just come back. If we can get a Taxxon, great. If we can stir up a rebellion within the Yeerk ranks and make Visser Three look bad, even better. But our goal is staying alive.”

That settled it. We spent another hour going over the finer points of the plan, getting some homework done. My cousins and aunt arrived home so we went out and said hello, and my aunt invited us to stay for pizza, so we did. Afterward, I thanked my aunt and Marco mentioned he needed to be getting home. I asked Rachel if she wanted to come hang out for a bit, to which my aunt simply said for her to be back at a reasonable time. We all headed for Cassie’s.

Cassie and Tobias were in the barn when we arrived. Tobias was looking at the birds, while Cassie was doing some odd jobs – she has her set ‘chores’ in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, but she’s always keeping herself busy in there and it’s not like there aren’t always a million things to do that pile up. Both of them looked grim.

“My mom was complaining this evening, that there’s a group in town that’s bombarding them with information about ‘animal welfare’, the size of the animal cages, who has access, on and on. She thinks they’re accusing her and The Gardens of inhumane treatment, but yeah.” Cassie took a long breath. “In totally unrelated news, The Sharing is holding a big fundraiser at The Gardens in two weeks.”

I pulled her into a shy hug. Marco refrained from saying anything dumb, but I’m sure he’d make it up later. “We’ll stop them, I promise.”

“I love it when he goes all General Jake,” Yep, there it was. “Don’t you Xena? It’s just dreamy.” Rachel popped him, not hard enough to even hurt but enough for Marco to act like it.

There was a great horned owl in the barn that we remembered to go ahead and acquire, and the osprey that Marco and Cassie had ended up acquiring had rearrived at the clinic today, so the pair of them went ahead and acquired that too. “Saving the best for last, cuz” Rachel said to me airily. I nodded. “Let them have their fun for now,” I said in the same airy tone. We shared a grin.

Then we were off; five owls in the dying light.

((I’m not saying it’s better than hawk, and for the record I’ve always said owls are cool.)) Tobias said as we flew in complete science out of Cassie’s barn in the fading evening light. ((The hearing might even be a little better, hard as that is to imagine.))

Being in morph is amazing. Without thinking about it my body was the perfect stealth machine, the owl’s instincts directing every feather just right.

((We should split up a bit,)) Tobias broke into my thoughts. ((You all think like people too much – we’ve got plenty of space up here, we’re not geese or gulls.))

Marco had remembered a window on the second floor science lab that never closed, and we divebombed in like the world’s greatest airshow. I guess we were all thinking the same thing, because as one we landed in a perfect V, each on a different desk top.

((Ok that was pretty cool,)) Marco crooned. Then we began to demorph. The janitor closet that – hopefully – still held an entrance to the Yeerk Pool was a flight down, and on the other end of the building. We couldn’t hear anyone up here, which was good. But the next question was how to cross the distance without risking getting caught.

I morphed Spider Monkey. It was a risk, but our battle morphs had too much of a risk of being caught. You can’t exactly hide a bear or a gorilla running down a hall and a flight of stairs. And we had at least two doors that needed opening. So Spider Monkey it was.

((This is really gross,)) Rachel complained. ((I’d be sick if I was capable of it.)) I couldn’t blame her, because in one hand I carried four cockroaches that were stacked on each other. Speaking of, ((I’m the one holding you guys,)) I reminded her.

It was a cool morph though. I rushed through the empty hall, my eyes seeing ok through the dim light of the emergency lighting that stays on even with the halls darkened. I could move fast, and I jumped up and swung the door open to the stairs. I had to jump up and then push off the wall with my feet, but that wasn’t really a problem for the monkey that was built to swing through the highest canopies of the rain forest.

I didn’t even bother with the stairs, jumping up and sliding down the handrail. Even with one hand full it was a game. It was fun. It was –

It wasn’t a game anymore. The door leading to the outside hall had one of those rectangle narrow windows with the grating gridded through it, but it gave me a perfectly good view of the janitor’s closet. Two Controllers were heading in there, but they didn’t concern me.

What did concern me very much was the cop Controller responsible for much of our earlier precautions. Standing guard of the entrance, a maze of roach motels at his feet and a mosquito net across the door. It was so primitive, but I guess when Visser Three demands an instant security solution, you use what works.

((Guys, we have a problem.))

* * *

**Chapter 5**

* * *

((You’re joking, right? I mean it’s the _Yeerks_ , they use those draco beams and space ships and flying death robots and now they’re fighting us like we’re on a _camping trip_!)) Marco was incredulous, I couldn’t blame him.

((Yep, that’s what I’m telling you.)) I peaked out the window again. Controller one was a middle aged blonde woman who I had never seen around school before. The second was a shorter asian girl I had English with. The cop handed the first one a black metal can and said something. She – ((Guys it gets even weirder, they’re spraying themselves with bug spray. RAID maybe? Either way-))

((Either way we’re defeated by technology found we could get at the mall for under twenty dollars,)) Rachel grumbled. She sounded embarrassed almost, and to be fair it was a ridiculous situation.

((Raccoon maybe? What if one of us stayed behind and took out the power and the rest of us snuck through in the dark? I don’t know what else we have that will be useful here, unless we storm the gate which isn’t the plan at all…) Cassie trailed off, and we spent a few minutes in silence racking for an idea. It’s always worse having to figure out snags in mid-mission because there’s the added tick tock of the morphing clock. We didn’t have Ax’s weird Andalite internal time tracker, but we had to be getting on for twenty minutes in morph. Here we were, not fifty feet from the entrance and no way to get in.

((I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.)) Tobias said at last.

((That’s always a good sign. How much are we not going to like it? I’m betting a lot.)) Marco added, but I could tell he was already resigned to a crazy seat-of-our-pants winging it plan and was just going through the motions.

((Yep. A lot Marco, you’re not going to like it a lot. What if we don’t use a morph at all? I go out there an-))

((Oh _hell no_ )) Rachel interrupted, sounding slightly shrill. ((Tobias, no. We cancel. We figure out a better game plan and come back tomorrow.))

((No. Rachel please – guys, listen. I go out. I distract him, I acquire him and he goes into the trance funk. You guys bolt through. He wakes up like nothing happened. We go in, do what we came here to do, and we’re done.))

I agreed with Rachel, we should wait till tomorrow. Except, tomorrow the Biofilters might arrive. Or some other low tech solution we hadn’t thought of might join the bug traps and netting, and then we’d delay again. And we were on a ticking clock, we needed to do something fast before the Visser had closed our chances and took the initiative.

((Tobias, this is really dangerous. What’s the plan if the cop sees us again together. It’s a target on our backs.))

((No, it’s not, Jake)) Tobias sounded very tense. ((Because the second part of the plan is I don’t come back to school. Nobody in this town sees me again.))

(( _No!_ )) I’d never heard Rachel so angry. ((Do you hate being human that much?! We need to thi-))

((I won’t trap myself as a hawk, Rachel, I swear. But think about it guys – if we lose all the hours I spent spying on the Yeerks during the school day going to algebra class and stuff, we lose a big advantage. I know I wasn’t always available for fights but you know that my spy stuff did a lot. We need it. And I’m the only one that can go off the grid and nobody get suspicious or even care.))

He said it like it just was a fact of life. Not for the first time I wondered how much of that was just Tobias’ shitty pre- _Animorph_ life, and how much had he really checked out of being human altogether.

We paused. We all knew that it was a good idea, but how can you just go along with something like that without at least stopping and thinking it through?

((Where will you stay?)) Marco asked after a minute, and right then I knew that if it came down to a vote, this was going to happen. Marco was going to side with Tobias and even if Cassie and Rachel voted against… I was going to break the tie in his favor. It was the right move. And anyway, Tobias wasn’t going to make this a democratic decision.

((I don’t know. Actually, maybe I do. There’s options but anyway – I go out there, I distract. You guys go through. Nobody sees me again and the cop figures either I died fighting the Andalite Bandits or Visser Three had my head or he never thinks of me again.))

Rachel didn’t say anything. ((Ok,)) I brok in at last. ((This could work – but we better get what we need tonight because this isn’t a trick that’s going to work twice.))

((There’s still one big flaw,)) Rachel said at last. ((When Tobias demorphs, he’s going to be in his morphing outfit. He’s not going to look like someone who belongs here.))

We thought it through some more. We waited and a few more controllers came through. There was quiet again. We had been in morph for at least a half hour, me as a monkey and Tobias back as himself waiting for a our moment. I retreated up the stairs, just enough to be out of sight.

“You!” Tobias swung the door open without even a hint of hiding his presence and growled at the cop as if he were about to tear him a new one. “What were you doing interrupting me like that! Do you make it a habit of hinting to the humans that something is going on?”

The cop controller hesitated, looking at Tobias’ bare feet and then moving up to his face. Even from my position I could see the moment that recognition hit. I braced myself to bolt through the door and attack.

“What’s your name?” Tobias snapped. “Visser Three has called on me personally tonight to explain the status of the project concerning the human zoo in this town, and unless you answer me now I will be sure to include your reckless stunt among those ignorant human children while I am at it.”

The cop’s eyes widened at that, and for a second I felt a stab of pity. Odds are he was just a grunt, maybe one with a bit of clout and respect if he was guarding Yeerk Pool entrances and not off in the back of beyond, but a grunt nonetheless. And now out of the blue a kid in bike shorts was threatening him with a murder-by-angry-boss.

((How’s our boy doing?)) Marco asked. ((I hear a lot of vibrations.))

((I think he’s actually going to pull this off, be ready to scurry.))

((This morph was born to scurry.))

“-eight four three. I’m sorry I had no idea you were present a-“ Tobias grabbed the guard’s arm roughly and I saw the telltale flutter of his eyes. The moment of truth was on us. I opened the door and bolted my monkey body down the hall, Tobias’ eyes flickered to me then went back to the guard. You have to keep concentration for the acquiring process to work and so Tobias really _really_ needed to keep his focus on the Controller and not on the whizzing spider monkey with my handful of cockroaches. And then a second later I was passed the bugtraps, pushing the netting aside the door and heading down the dimly lit steps down to the Yeerk Pool. I stopped as soon as I was out of sight.

“-I’ve heard enough. Hold this position as you were instructed for now; if anything more needs to be said you can be sure the Visser or I will send for you. If you are lucky, you will hear form neither of us.” 

((He did it, I think. Yep – ok he’s here.))

((So now what?)) Rachel asked. ((I’m pretty sure a giant monkey going down to the Yeerk Pool is going to give the game away. And there’s no way, _no way_ , that bullshit up there is going to work a second time.))

((Agreed,)) I replied. I thought for a moment, well aware that every second that passed was another we could be spotted, Tobias and I were still going down to the pool and he was looking twitchy. At this point originally we were all supposed to be cockroaches, and already the plan was falling apart. ((Okay – Tobias goes hawk like we intended. Rachel, we’re switching places. I go Tiger. That should be enough to take anyone’s mind off why there’s a hawk, or even noticing.))

((I was looking forward to ramming the gates,)) Rachel commented, soundly slightly miffed.

Marco was quick to retort. ((You get to wrestle a Taxxon instead. It’s still something.))

((That’s true. A disgusting something.))

We were a good ways down the stairs now and I couldn’t hear anyone in either direction. ((Alright, Tobias, you ready?)) He nodded, and began the transformation into his hawk. I demorphed back to myself, took a long breath and began to focus on the tiger. My tail sprouted out. The pressure in my head sorta moved around a bit as my ears moved on my head. And then my muscles grew and grew and grew. Hey, I told you this was my favorite morph. As I hunched over and then fell on all fours the Tiger brain appeared. It was _cool_. The human me knew that we were heading into a place insanely dangerous but the tiger wasn’t worried about it. I sniffed the air, stalking forward as my whiskers twitched.

((You in control there?)) Tobias asked, sounding a little nervous. Sure hawks aren’t exactly the normal prey of tigers but there wasn’t a lot of space between us and the tunnel roof for Tobias to get away if I attacked. ((Yeah, I’m fine,)) I said after a moment. ((Let’s go,)) we stalked forward.

We hadn’t realized it that first time but Yeerk pool tunnels at built with two separate one-way corridors coming in and out of roughly the same area, one entrance and one exit. We never did find out where the second ‘exit’ in our school was before the Yeerks had shut down this path the first time round. In the mall, Controllers entered through The Gap but came out in one of the theatres at the megaplex. We don’t know why they do this, but Ax thought it may have been simply Yeerks copying the first example of construction best practices they came across, which was the Andalites. Andalite space port facilities (pretty much the closest things the Andalites have to cities, apparently) always have separate paths in and out for a safety precaution. Ax suggested it might also be leftover evolutionary habit from when they were a prey species, and the fear of being trapped in a space with only one way in or out. Either way, the Yeerks saw that in the manuals in the Andalite ships the stole, and just went with it. Or maybe they had their own reasons.

I don’t know. I’m rambling. The point is, that after getting past the cop, we made it down to the Yeerk pool without running into anyone, and that wasn’t entirely because of some great luck, but by the design of the Pool itself. We could hear the screams and sobs of Controllers clearly now. My ears pressed tight against my head. It was time to spring whatever trap Visser Three might have had time to place.

((The entrance is around the next bend,)) I told my cockroach cargo. ((The cages are going to be all straight ahead, along the near side of the pool. Stay right, Tobias should be able direct things from there. And if anything goes wrong, just get out.))

They jumped off my back like little cockroach daredevils and immediately shot for the shadow of the wall.

((And don’t get eaten by a Taxxon this time round, yeah yeah we got it Jake,)) Marco replied, although which cockroach he was exactly I had no idea.

((Ready when you are, Jake)) Tobias’s voice settled in my head. ((Right.)) I slunk forward and using all the power in those liquid steel coils that were my muscles I charged into hell.

 _RAWWWWWWWR!_ They say that in the jungle when the tiger roars, the entire canopy goes silent. I don’t know about that, but the pool did. A tiger can roar at over 110 decibels, which is like a rock concert or a jet engine level of loud. Loud enough that it can cause a human serious pain just by hearing it up close. I don’t know what Visser Three had told anyone to expect, but clearly they weren’t quit ready for me.

Nobody even noticed Tobias flapping like mad and disappearing into the darkness of the domed roof towering over us. To be honest, his owl morph would probably have been a better choice, but Tobias knew every feather of the hawk, every possible thing it could and couldn’t do if things got dicey. In the future, I remember the Yeerks had these flying robot things to patrol in case we came through the roof, but clearly those weren’t in operation yet, even if the Visser had remembered them already.

(Go go go, about fifty feet ahead and then slight right,)) Tobias called out to the others, but that wasn’t my fight anymore. ((There’s a cluster of Taxxon actually not far beyond that, assuming they don’t come after Jake.)) More likely the opposite – Taxxons have a lot of roles in the Yeerk army; but as soldiers once you get over the disgust factor they’re as easy to kill as giant bags of walking jello. They weren’t the warriors of the Yeerk army. The team of three Hork Bajir, large even for Hork Bajir standards, on the other hand _are_.

The first reached for his Dracon Beam, and he hadn’t done more than twitch when I turned and pounced. One bladed arm stabbed at my flank and left a shallow gash in my side, and then my teeth clamped around his neck. He flailed. I dodged a knee blade slashed more in desperation than trained combat. He went limp.

The other two had not wasted the time though, and I had push myself to the side to avoid a meaty hand grasping at my the throat and a muscled and clawed foot striking for my belly. I growled at them keeping both in view as in the back of my mind I noted a small cluster of humans Controller now coming at me.

((Now would be good!)) I thought out at the others. Hopefully, they weren’t too busy to respond. Another blade swished inches in front of my face. I dodged, and then my paw, claws fully extended, raked down the others ones back. He gave a great cry of pain and let loose a string of half-alien, half-English swearing. I assume it was alien swearing, the English certainly was.

The Hork Bajir staggered, blood oozing out its back, but its friend kept coming. The humans came closer. I began to retreat ever so slightly, looking for my moment. We had agreed that if it came to it and forced to run, I would, but I had just a little more time. Another swoosh, another miss. I slashed back, he glanced my blow off with another blade. He ju-

 _((_ Humans of Earth! As many of you have likely heard for the parasite Yeerks inside your heads, a great battle took place above this planet. The Yeerks will have told you that we were defeated. In truth, the fight continues, now on Earth.)) Marco’s thoughtspeak – and with thoughtspeak I could tell you who it is at this point but it is not the same as Marco’s actual voice _-_ rang out.

((We have come here to give you hope. But for now, we have also come for a great weapon. We need you to join us right now in this fight!))

((The Yeerk in your head will punish you for this. But you will do your species great honor now. Create chaos, and tell us all you can about the invasion of this planet. Tell us all the Yeerk that infests you knows.))

Absolute chaos broke out. I’ve seen Controllers in Yeerk Pools before. I’ve even been a Controller, and saw the memories of my brother as he was beaten down over months and months of being a prisoner in his own body. I was there when Mr. Chapman struggled to speak again after being allowed to address Visser Three. This was both better and worse than all those times.

It was hopeless, we had no chance of rescuing anyone, not now. But the pool came _alive_.

The final Hork Bajir I was fighting spasmed. Then he slammed his own claw into the side of his head. I knew a Hork Bajir could actually survive such a wound, but I couldn’t bring myself to kill him in that moment. Not when he had a moment of free-

“ _Zarak Clanga_ kill me _Adush_ free me,” his face twitched again “Andalite Filth” I growled. I jumped again, to grant the final wish, a claw rushed at me, then spasmed once more. The Yeerk missed, and my claws clamped over the throat. I bit hard, foul tasting yellow blood coating my mouth, trying to make the kill as quick and painless as possible.

I turned my attention to the group of humans who had been slowly moving to close in. I heard a loud sharp crack, and then felt a thud. I had been shot, It felt like a prick. A tap. One of them was holding a pistol, not the usual Yeerk weaponry – nothing for me to particularly be worried about. The gun hand trembled, from having to face down a tiger or from his own host fighting back, I don’t know.

Along the edge of the Yeerk Pool the screams intensified. The currently free Controllers that had been being transferred to the cages from the pool began to battle with their guards in earnerst. Guards were also fighting a war inside themselves. One free guy with cropped silver hair was stabbed by his guard, just falling down like a puppet with its cords cut. Another group managed to overpower one of the Hork Bajir though, and actually grabbed a Dracon Beam. A woman, maybe in her early forties, scrambled and grabbed it. She shot another Hork Bajir, then another before a Dracon Beam fired from somewhere off to the left seared off her leg neat as can be.

A Controller went for the dropped weapon and I jumped, six hundred pounds of pouncing tiger smashing into a human at full speed. Even without my teeth and claws, that wasn’t the sort of thing you recover from quickly. Another freed person, a teenager I remembered seeing at the beach party, scrabbled and grabbed the gun but just ran for the exit. He got to the entrance before he was cut down.

While all this was going on, the Controller in Cages were battering at their doors with renewed if hopeless energy. Last time around, we had come earlier because we were deliberately following Tom, and he had been in those cages, screaming and fighting at his captors. I don’t know where he was now, but I hoped he was fighting as best he could. I also hoped he was safe, I felt sick thinking about if he had been the one amputated or even worse killed by a Dracon Beam tonight.

They were all screaming now. Screaming about what their Yeerks knew. I tried to focus on it, even as I prowled past the humans who were no longer interested in fighting me. I wished Ax was here, he would have been able to remember what the people in the cages were screaming about. I just caught words in the mess. School. Hospital. Police Station. Coast Guard. 33rd Street and Oak. Don’t let them take my parents. Die you filthy slugs!

Hopefully Tobias was able to pay closer attention. The Yeerks were going to punish their hosts big time for this, it would be sick if it was all for nothing.

Within a few minutes though, the Yeerks were regaining the upper hand. The free hosts had been overwhelmed. It looked like a few cages had been threatening to actually out, metal beams seared by Dracon shots and in one case a Guard had managed to take control of his body again long enough to open his door before being overwhelmed by would be escapees… but they had been cut off, and cut down in a gruesome melee with Controllers who had already once more crushed their hosts. No Controller had ever permanently defeated a Yeerk, Temrash 114 had boasted to me, but with a boast that had been completely truthful.

The shouts stopped. The twitches and spasms and internal battles died. And all attention turned back to me.

((I’m retreating,)) I called out in semi-public thoughtspeak, directed at my friends. ((I’ve done all I can here,)) I took down another Hork Bajir, my fifth or maybe sixth of the night. I was covered in wounds, some scratches some that were fast becoming serious. ((What’s the scoop?))

 _BRRRRRRRRRRT_. I said tigers are loud? Turns out angry elephants are slightly louder. Rachel stormed out of a cargo hold and barreled into a group of regrouped human and Hork Bajir like they were tenpins. She had a giant plastic crate wrapped in her trunk. Right behind her was a Gorilla, firing a Dracon Beam in both hands. There were two bulldozers and a half dozen forklifts along the side of the pool – Yeerks really aren’t picky over what tech they use when you get down to it. A few seconds later, they were all just scrap metal. A wolf – Cassie, loped quickly on Rachel’s other flank.

((We did it, Jake – we got the Taxxon)) Cassie called out, her voice slightly giddy with the rush of being in battle. ((We’re good, we’re good.))

((Time to go,)) I called out. ((Tobias, you too!)) I let out another roar as a group of human controllers decided it was time to retreat. ((What’s the box for?)) I asked Rachel.

((Insurance.)) She said simply. Before I could ask what that mean, she flung it with all her elephant strength, and it went flying into the Yeerk pool.

Marco stopped for a fraction of a second, and shot at the box. He missed, cutting a line into the pool maybe ten yards forward. It didn’t matter; he just kept pressing the trigger and raised the barrel slightly.

 _Boom!_ The crate of whatever exploded, sending up a giant wave of Yeerk Pool sludge and sending a blast out that staggered even the tiger. Rachel had thrown the crate as far as she could away from the cages but I could see that the nearest ones had taken a nasty blast; almost everyone was one the ground although the screams suggested confusion and injury rather than death. I turned away, back to the exit.

((Humans, you have won your planet a victory today,)) Tobias’ thoughtspeak rang through the pool. ((We will return. Your information will not have been given in vain. Never stop fighting the Yeerks!)) He dove low, landing on Rachel’s back, not that she hardly noticed, storming back up the stairs as she was.

We ran. Back up the stairs we had come. Rachel barely fit but we had the advantage of having done this before. Whatever the Visser had managed to change, he hadn’t been able to stop this. We had escaped. We had thrown confusion into the Yeerk ranks. We had a Taxxon morph that the Yeerks would be unaware of. With any luck, even without destroying the Kandrona, the rebellion tonight would force Visser Three to put The Gardens plans on hold, as he couldn’t know what intelligence we had successfully captured. And speaking of the Visser-

 _Tsssssew_. A Dracon Beam went past me. Marco let out a roar a split second later, both as the gorilla and in thoughtspeak. I looked. His right hand was gone, a ragged stump suddenly ended about halfway between where his elbow and wrist should have been. Another shot and Rachel’s big elephant ears had a hole you could ram a loaf of bread through.

It was the cop. The only Yeerk left between us and escape and we were trapped in the last leg of the tunnel. Rachel was too big for us to even think about retreat. His face was full of fury and hopeless anger. He knew if we didn’t kill him, Visser Three certainly would. He turned to me.

Cassie let loose a roar and the wolf pounced. Before he got off a third shot, he arm was caught in her jaw, her paws ripping and tearing at him as his arm was torn to ribbons. It was only a few seconds. And then ((oh god oh god oh god)) Cassie’s voice. ((I killed him.))

((No he’s alive)) I said dumbly, and we kept barreling forward. Rachel smashed through the doorway, breaking it out of its frame and then started charging down the hall. The cop though would be dead in a few minutes. In my mind, a part of me thought at least this solved our problem with Tobias, he wouldn’t need to go off the grid again. I kept that to myself. A controller was coming into the school as Rachel slammed through the glass doors. He took off in the other direction. We didn’t follow.

We split up after demorphing behind the gym. A smushed bullet, maybe the size of my thumbnail, fell out of my side and hit the ground with a dull _cling_. I left it there. I took Cassie home. She was almost catatonic at first, then broke down crying. “He died the first time around too. I saw it. This time, I killed him myself. Oh God, Jake, I don’t think I can bear killing people twice.”

I didn’t say anything, I just held her. She trembled slightly in my arms. We stayed that way for a long time. I don’t remember when she finally morphed into owl and went up into her bedroom window, but it had to be past midnight. I was going to be a zombie at school tomorrow.

I flew home, landing in my room. I changed into my night clothes and ruffled my bed, then went out into the hall, looking as if I just was looking for a drink of water. But really, I was looking for Tom’s sneakers. Relief went through me when I saw them, kicked haphazardly next to the kitchen table. I know it’s selfish, but all I cared about right then was knowing my brother had gotten home safe, whatever else he might have endured tonight.

I went to bed. And just as I drifted off, the thought returned with all the force of that third Hork Bajir.

This time around, Visser Three hadn’t been at the Yeerk Pool.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this story. The next story in this series will begin shortly. Reviews are appreciated, but most importantly I hope you all enjoyed and look forward as much as I do to the development of this series! Special thanks to my wife for her tolerance to the time this hobby takes, to K.A. Applegate for this universe, and all of you.
> 
> Kindest Regards,  
> Penguin45


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